Voyagers Saga: Justice, Bolts, and Gears
by Cydra
Summary: The Earthbound Autobots are going to be in for a big challenge when a team of mercenaries from another multiverse. Among them is a certain little girl and her alien dog. If that weren't enough, there'll be many new robots coming out of the metalwork.
1. First Impressions

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 1: First Impressions**

**(Author's Note: This story takes place after the events of Forgotten Blood and Soulless Abyss, written by my co-author, largefish8. You might want to read those first before reading this story.)**

Matt was sitting in his room aboard the Bladestorm. He'd gotten the hang of holding his human form, but he still woke up as a dragon. He wasn't sleeping however. A news report was on, "...and in other news, reports have come in of a major firefight between the H.Q.F and what reports say was a major buildup of marauder ships. The target was the newly discovered B-001 within the dragon eye nebula.

"Among the known people who had taken action in this conflict is Matthew Lynch, who was reported missing for a week but was found alive and well in the care of the locals.

"However among the losses was Kala 777 who was reported to have..." said the newscaster and was cut off as Matt turned the comm. off.

I know perfectly well who was lost," he said, getting up to go for a walk.

--

Matt sighed to himself as he was walking down the corridor. "Maybe I should consider redecorating," said Matt, "Make these walls something else besides a dull grey."

He turned a corner and paused when saw Megan who, in stark contrast with Matt's gloomy mood, was apparently doing cheerful ballet dancing while holding a paper in both hands.

Matt sat down gloomily. "Hey, Megan," he said in a dull voice

"He's coming! He's coming!" squealed Megan and hugged the paper close to her chest.

Matt jumped back. "GAH...WHO'S COMING?" he yelled.

"Gary's coming!" said Megan happily.

"Who's Gary?" asked Matt.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't met him," said Megan. She handed Matt the paper and said, "Read this." Matt took the paper and saw that it was a letter.

"Dear Megan,

I am happy to tell you that I've finally managed to see the world as I had wanted to. I'm still catching up on the times, but at least I can control my changes now. To my great fortune, I've come across a pair of aliens who were heading in the same direction I am. I shall be with you in three days at the most.

Love, Gary."

Matt looked at it. "Who the smeg is Gary?" he said suspiciously.

"Gary is the most perfect guy I ever met," said Megan, "We met in France. He's a perfect gentleman, he loves to fly with me, and he can play the guitar!"

Matt looked at the note. "Is this one of those things nobody told me about?" he said in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, don't worry, you'll like him," said Megan, "He'll fit right in among here. Granted he may not be used to fighting with his powers, but I'm sure he'll improve."

Matt sighed. "Great...at this rate there won't be room for me on this ship," he said, walking off.

Megan walked with him. "I'm sure he'll be fine. Well, there may be a few loose feathers where he sleeps, but he's really..."

"Wait a minute, feathers?" said Matt, drawing to a halt.

"Oh, yes, I haven't told you yet," said Megan, "Gary's a weregoyle. Sorta like Demona, only he can gargoyle during the day and human at night at times."

Matt sighed. "As long as he doesn't irritate the spiderbots, he'll be fine," he said.

"Um, Matt, one more thing," said Megan, now sounding nervous, "You're not the only one I haven't told about Gary yet."

"Pardon?" said Matt, his eye twitching. "So?" he said.

"Well, I wasn't sure how Uncle Nega would handle me having a boyfriend, but I guess I'll have to tell him now," said Megan, "But would you mind standing by me when I tell him?"

"Ok," said Matt. He was bored anyway.

--

The two of them found NegaMorph with Chip. NegaMorph was helping Chip tighten his loose hinges. "Um, Uncle Nega," said Megan, "There are a few things I haven't told you about my adventures."

"And those are?" said NegaMorph, not looking up.

"Well, I've been learning necromancy."

"That's nice."

"I've been treasure hunting."

"Good for you."

"And I got a boyfriend."

"Oh, lucky- WHAT?!?"

Matt managed to prepare some plasma control. "Now, NegaMorph...don't get excited," he said.

"Oh, why should I get excited about some punk messing around with my niece?" said NegaMorph through gritted teeth.

"Because Mr. Gary will be a guest in three days, if you even look at him or bribe the spiderbots to chop him into fillets, I will vaporize you...slowly," said Matt in a 'I'm not joking' voice.

"Oh, I won't have a problem with him living here, not at all," said NegaMorph in a very strained voice. In his irritation, he hadn't noticed that he had tightened Chip's leg joint past the point of comfort.

Matt smirked and leaned close, winking at Megan. "Yeah...good idea to meet your son-in-law," he said with an evil grin. It wasn't often he got to annoy NegaMorph.

NegaMorph was practically frothing at the mouth now. "I don't see why I should trust him to be anywhere near her," he snarled. By now, Chip was making squawks of pain to try to get NegaMorph to stop tightening his joint.

"Oh...the pitter patter of little feet," said Matt, carrying on.

NegaMorph's eyes glowed red. "He wouldn't dare..." he growled. A howl of pain from Chip made a brief pause in the conversation as his leg joint was tightened to the point of snapping.

As NegaMorph paused to loosen Chip's leg joint, Megan said, "Oh, Uncle Nega, I'm sure you'll like him. He's a very good person."

"Oh sure, I'll like him," said NegaMorph, "In an 'I-can't-wait-to-go-to-his-funeral' way."

Matt and Megan walked out before laughing on each other's shoulders. "Sometimes, it's too easy," Matt said.

"You don't really think he'll be too hard on Gary, do you?" asked Megan.

"The spiderbots won't let him cause anything permanent," said Matt.

"I don't think emotional scarring is that easy to recover from," said Megan.

"Oh, I took that into account," said Matt, "By the way, did he say what aliens were bringing him?"

"Not really," said Megan, "All I got was this letter. But that was more than enough for me."

--

Matt and company were waiting in the docking bay. NegaMorph noticed darkly that a dozen spiderbots had been shadowing him all day.

"When will he be coming?" asked Draco.

"He'll be coming round the space cloud when he comes," sang Morph, "He'll be coming round the space cloud when he comes."

Matt and Chloe both blasted Morph against the wall. A familiar ship flew into view. "Hey...isn't that the Bed and Not Breakfast?" said Techo.

Chip studied it with his binocular vision. "Yes, I believe it is," he said.

"Wait...the B&NB is a starship?" said Matt. The ship had just landed and Matt and Chloe moved to within grabbing range of NegaMorph.

The door on the ship opened and a very familiar figure stepped out. "Little girl! 6-2-6!"

"Jumba!" said Lilo and Stitch happily and ran over to hug him.

Matt nodded to Jumba. "Hi...long time no see."

Jumba blinked in confusion. "You last called 9 days ago. That is not long time," he said.

Matt gulped. "Erm...of course," he said.

Just then, Pleakley came out of the ship. "Hello, everybody!" he called. He held up a tray full of cookies and said, "I brought some-" He was cut off when he was mobbed by the experiments, which ate all the cookies and ran off.

"Man, they must be hungry," muttered Chloe, sniffing a missed cookie and smelling road grit.

Then a 14 year old boy came out. He was wearing a black shirt with the sleeves torn off, blue jeans, black boots, and a green handkerchief tied around a neck like a scarf. He had slightly tanned skin and long black hair tied back in a ponytail. "Gary!" cried Megan and ran towards him.

Matt spotted NegaMorph and shook his head before pointing at the spiderbots who were all looking at him.

Gary hugged Megan and said, "Ah, my little whippoorwill, I have missed you so much."

Matt walked forward. "Captain Lynch, pleased to meet you."

Gary sniffed the air and said, "There's something unusual about you. You smell like...dragon."

Matt's eye twitched. "Heh...it's the sign again," he said.

Chloe sighed. "Well guessed," she said before muttering, "...now pretend to be surprised or kiss your eyebrows farewell."

"I don't believe I've met any dragon/human hybrids before," said Gary, "Are there many like you?"

"Most of them are at a dimension called Avalar. Just us two are nice. You don't want to meet the others," said Chloe as Matt continued to snigger randomly.

Then Megan brought Gary over to NegaMorph. "Gary, this is my Uncle NegaMorph, the one who gave me my powers. Uncle Nega, this is Gary."

NegaMorph forcibly brought his mouth up into the proximity of a smile. "Charmed, I'm sure," he said in a strained voice.

A spiderbot landed on his head and made a threatening whistle at him. NegaMorph glared at it and offered his hand to shake...till the spiderbot lasered it off. It had been his hand with the mouth.

Gary looked what somewhat nervously at NegaMorph and said, "I'm sure you've been a very good influence on Megan."

NegaMorph nodded. "I have...Gary…" he said in an even more strained voice, offering his other hand to shake.

Matt watched to see if NegaMorph would put too much strength in his grip. He apparently did, but Gary didn't seem to mind. "That's quite a handshake you have there," he said.

NegaMorph looked confused and subtly increased the strength to no effect. "You have a tough grip," he said and yelped as the spiderbot zapped him, deciding he was pushing his luck

"Well, it comes with being part gargoyle," said Gary, letting go.

NegaMorph was busy trying to pull the spiderbot off which had continued tazering him.

"Out of curiosity, how did that come about?" asked Matt. "Well," said Gary, "I was originally born about 200 years ago. I was a servant boy for an aristocratic family when the French Revolution came. I climbed up a tree to get to safety, but I fell and apparently got killed. I spent the next two centuries haunting my grave until Ghoulwyrm put me in a stone gargoyle body."

Matt sighed and aimed a half-glare at the direction Draco and Chip had gone. "So much I don't know," he said in a nasty voice.

"Well, Megan here was able to free me from Ghoulwyrm's control and give me the body I have now. I've been spending the last few weeks seeing the world and trying to control my bestial form. That's when I came to Hawaii and met these two." He indicated towards Jumba and Pleakley.

"Ah...cool," said Matt., "I have to go beat the experiments senseless for withholding information, again," as he walked off with an ignited plasma ball.

"Now wait a minute," said Draco, "Megan specifically told us not to tell you about Gary."

"And why's that?" said Matt as he got ready to throw the plasma ball.

"Because she knew you wouldn't be able to resist teasing him about it," said Chip.

"I'm not teasing Gary...I'm teasing NegaMorph," said Matt.

Luckily for the experiments, WARDEN tuned in. "Sir...I have Councilman Davine on the line."

"I better see about that," said Matt, dousing the plasma orb.

As he walked off, Chip said, "By the way, I actually did mean NegaMorph."

--

Matt walked into his room and saw the face of the Galvan from his trial. "Sir," he said, straightening his hat.

"Matthew Lynch, we have a very important mission for you," said Davine, "As you are aware, the Empire has been gaining more ground, thanks to OmegaMorph."

"Sorry...been out of contact for a week. What do you need me to do?" said Matt. Davine sighed, "This might be hard and should really require a fully equipped diplomat ship, but you are the closest and have...experience with the people involved. You have been to dimension D-31?"

"Uh, let's see," said Matt, trying to remember which dimension that was. Then he recalled a rather messy job he did back in his earlier years with the NSC. "Uh, I think so. Is there a particular reason you're asking?" asked Matt.

"Because I believe Dante is dead...and he was the only other pilot left. I understand completely if you refuse and there will be no backlash," said Davine.

Matt thought back to that mission and did not get any nostalgic feelings. Actually, he mostly felt guilt. "Actually, I think I will take this mission," said Matt, "I feel like I should get some closure on this."

--

A few minutes later and Gary and Megan were watching the multicolored space of Nullspace. He'd mentioned something about a detour. Techo could be seen fiddling with a conduit. "Oh...hey guys...ignore me. WARDEN said there was some kinda surge in the warp drive, trying to find it," he said, seeing them

"So, how exactly does it work?" asked Gary.

"Oh, makes sure we end up where we need and not in the middle of a sun or something," said Techo.

Gary then looked very nervous. "Relax," said Megan, "We don't have any accidents like that, right Techo?"

"Well...there was that time everyone got teleported to Arizona on the Shadow Hawk, but we were being attacked by Ectonurites at the time...OW!" he said as a spark shot out and threw him back 3 feet. At the same time the view outside was replaced by the mist of a wormhole warp, except this time it was more like a storm cloud.

"Um, Techo, is that a bad thing?" asked Gary.

Techo was out cold, a nasty burn on his hand. However a klaxon had began to scream. "Stabilizer failure...navigation system...offline...repair crews to engineering immediately," said WARDEN's voice.

Immediately, technicians started running towards the warp engines. "We better get him to the medical bay," said Megan as she grabbed Techo's arms. Gary grabbed his legs and picked him up.

"Structural integrity degrading...full system failure in 1.2 minutes...emergency materialization activating...eject jump drive at once." said WARDEN calmly.

Matt immediately started punching in the override system. Eventually WARDEN said, "Jump drive disengaged." The multicolored mess outside cleared away to reveal empty space. Matt breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Are we in the right universe?"

"Alert...core temperature rising...damage to coolant systems detected...ejecting," said Warden, ignoring Matt.

--

A hatch on the side of the Bladestorm opened and the glowing column of the ship's jump drive shot out, shooting out like a blue comet, before exploding in a huge dome of light. Doing so, it illuminated the plant they had been in the eclipse of.

--

Matt groaned with annoyance and said, "Now we're going to have to stop and do repairs. What planet is this here?" "This dimension's Earth, sir," said WARDEN.

"Scanning timeline...we are at the correct date...but the incorrect location...scanning for local signals," said WARDEN.

Matt glanced at the date and saw that it was the 22nd century. "Huh, for once we end up in the future instead of the past," said Matt.

"Negative...this is the time frame...attempting to communicate with contact," said WARDEN.

Matt sat back and glared as the next voice said, "We're sorry, but the planet you are trying to reach is busy, please try again later..."

Matt groaned and said, "Just land at the spot on Earth with the best available technology for repairing the warp drive."

"Scanning...location confirmed," said WARDEN. A hologram of the earth appeared and spun until it highlighted a location in America.

Matt frowned. "Wait a minute," he said, "That's Detroit, Michigan. I said the place best suited for repairing-"

"Scans indicate that technology available in Detroit is best suitable for jump drive repair," said WARDEN.

Matt sighed. "Crap...get a team together," he said.

Meanwhile, Gary and Megan had brought Techo over to the medical bay. "He is going to ok, right?" asked Megan.

"He's fine, watch," she said and brought him out of the sleep he was in.

"Ugh, I feel like I've been hit with a giant curling iron," said Techo.

"Well maybe this will cheer you up," said Gary as he reached into his bag, "I picked these up when I was in Brazil." He pulled out a bag of chocolate-coated coffee beans.

Techo grabbed it and threw them down the waste unit. "You numbskull...NEVER BRING COFFEE INTO THIS SHIP!" he yelled. Gary was about to ask when he saw the experiments' gazes.

Suddenly, Morph plunged down the chute and came back up with the bag. "Got it before it hit the garbage!" he said excitedly. The other experiments immediately crowded around him.

A spiderbot luckily earned a small award for saving the whole bay when it vaporized the bag. For a second, the experiments seemed about to attack it, till they realize what it could do.

Techo turned to Gary and said, "Do you have any more of those things?"

"Well, I've got two other bags in my other bag," said Gary, "It's actually quite tasty when-" He was cut off when the experiments made a rush for Gary's luggage.

"Gary, rule one: caffeine's like a cross between lucazade, cocaine, and kr-ta to experiments. We can safely say they will be no use for 12 hours except as shock troopers," Techo said in a gloomy voice.

--

Matt had set up base in the forest outside of Detroit. He had turned on the cloaking device so no one had noticed them coming in. Right now, he was at the door looking outside. It was apparently winter right now so there was snow anywhere. Suddenly, he heard the sound of something ricocheting off of metal. "What the-" Suddenly, five blurs flew past him and outside.

"What the hell was that? IF THEY SCRATCHED THE PAINTWORK..." he yelled, walking down the ramp, his shape shimmering as he began to lose his concentration...and as a result his form.

Just then, Megan and Gary ran out. "Matt, the experiments just-" Megan paused as Matt went into his dragon form. After pausing a moment to take it in, Megan continued, "The experiments just ate two bags of chocolate-coated coffee beans. They're out of control!"

Matt sighed and lowered his front paw down as the experiments ran by and made a little flick. After a few minutes, they found the experiments in a snow drift 40 feet away.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to eat..." started Matt when he did a head count, "Hey, where's Stitch and Hyena?"

"I think they went that way," said Gary, pointing at tracks in the snow leading towards Detroit.

Matt looked down to see two trails headed off into the distance. "Ah crap, WARDEN, get the base set up and get some vehicles down here. Guys, I always wanted to try experiment hunting. Any tips Lilo?" he said, shimmering back to human.

"Well, they'll probably be heading for the center of town," said Lilo, "They'll want to cause a lot of mayhem now."

"What is happening here?" asked Jumba as he walked towards them.

"Stitch and Hyena are on a demolition trek towards Detroit," said Matt.

"Ooh, have always wanted to see that. I will fetch camera," said Jumba excitedly before running back inside.

Then Matt realized something. "Wait...all the coffee's quarantined in the ship vault. Who gave them coffee?" he said sniffing. The best smell was on Gary. "Did we bring our own lunch?" he said menacingly, letting his teeth transform for extra effect when he grinned.

"Erm, I hadn't realized they had such a violent reaction to caffeine," said Gary, twiddling his fingers in a guilty way.

Matt's grin was like that of a shark when it had seen a drowning swimmer coated in meatloaf. "Really...well, I guess you volunteered to help," he said, grabbing Gary.

--

Captain Carmine Fanzone was sitting in his rusty car. He had been waiting for the light to turn green for over three minutes. "I swear, the machines get screwier every year," he muttered. Suddenly, a creature that resembled a blue koala jumped onto the hood of his car.

"WHAT THE?" he said, jumping back in his seat.

The creature laughed insanely and yelled "MEEGA NALA QUEESTA!" before ripping the bumper off and throwing it at the traffic lights.

"Hey!" yelled Fanzone. Then the creature licked the entire windshield, leaving it covered with drool. Then it laughed, jumped off the hood, and ran away.

"Control, this is Fanzone. Did something escape from the zoo, the exotic section?" he said into his radio and heard something rip the door off. A red koala creature pulled the other end of the radio out and ate it before running off after the first one.

Fanzone groaned to himself before pulling out his old-fashioned cell phone. "Something tells me this day's gonna go down the hill," he grumbled.

He was turning it on when someone knocked on his door. "Hi dude, did you see two pals of mine come this way; about so high, blue and red," said a British teenager with weird blue eyes.

"If you meant the mutant koalas, they ripped off my bumper and door. The red one even ate my radio." Fanzone glared at Matt and said, "Did you let those monsters loose?"

"No, I'm as normal as the next guy," said Matt.

A hovering police drone came into view. "Cease and desis..." it began and exploded as Matt clicked his fingers and overloaded its plasma power cell.

"Well...nearly normal."

Then a distant crash was heard and Matt said, "Oh, that must be them. Uh, I'll pay for your car and drone later." He quickly ran off in the direction of the crash.

Fanzone stared for a minute before remembering what he had been about to call. He pressed send and said, "Optimus...get your bots down to..." and stopped as a voice said, "Pizza Bot...may I take your order?"

Fanzone growled and said, "This is why I hate machines."

--

Matt and company peered round the corner. Stitch and Hyena were causing mayhem. Jumba was on the comm., in a sulk because Matt had refused to let him or Pleakley tag along. "Well, there they are, Lilo. What works when Stitch goes coffee crazy?" he asked, looking down at Lilo who was in experiment form.

"Well, normally I wait for him to tire out," said Lilo. A streetlight crashed down nearby them. "Which isn't an option here," she said, "But he does get really thirsty when he's wound up like this. We could catch him when he's drinking."

There was a tearing noise and part of a fire hydrant flew past them to embed in the wall. "You mean like that?" said Matt.

Stitch was busy gulping up the spurting water. "Ok, on the count of three, we jump and grab him," said Matt.

"Is that '1-2-3-go' or 'go on 3'?" asked Lilo.

"Oh, just go." said Matt, looking at the third member of their group. (Chloe having remained back at camp to help set it up.)

"Well, I suppose I better get ready," said Gary. He concentrated and his skin turned a deeper brown while his ears became pointed and his teeth grew a little sharper. Curved-back horns grew from his head and his feet, which he had remembered to remove his socks and boots from, grew into large claws. Then feathered wings and a leonine tail sprouted through preexisting holes.

Matt sighed. "Too slow," he said, grabbing Gary and pushing him into Stitch's field of sight.

Stitch stopped drinking and looked at Gary. "Um, hi," said Gary nervously, "Uh, you really shouldn't-" Stitch cut him off by spitting a mouthful of water at Gary's face.

Matt jumped out and tried to dogpile on Stitch. "C'mon...this is no way to behave," he said desperately before being grabbed and thrown at Hyena who punted him back to Stitch, who did it right back again. Gary and Lilo watched as Matt was used for impromptu tennis.

Suddenly, the two of them heard sirens wailing. Lilo looked to see a red and blue fire truck, an ambulance, a yellow compact car resembling Fanzone's car without the rust, a large green SWAT van, and a highway patrolman on a black and gold motorcycle with a similar sidecar driving towards them.

Matt at that point got sick of being punted and turned dragon half way back to Hyena, the full weight of his dragon form landing on Hyena. He proceeded to jump up and down till the moving stopped.

Lilo changed back to human form and approached the police officer on the motorcycle. "Sir, my friend's taking care of the, uh, bad doggies," she said, "You don't have to arrest them." She reached out to put her hand on his leg, but her hand went right through.

"You better leave now," said a voice from the fire truck, "This is no place for a small human. Autobots, transform!" Suddenly, the back section of the fire truck split off like a trailer while the front half converted into a tall red and blue robot.

The ambulance also transformed, turning an older-looking robot.

Then the police officer on the motorbike disappeared as the motorcycle transformed into a ninja-like robot. The sidecar unfolded and attached to the robot, forming samurai-like armor.

The yellow compact car uncurled into a relatively smaller robot.

Then the green SWAT transformed into a noticeably large and bulky robot.

Matt was about to blast Stitch into semi-consciousness when he heard that. "Oh you got to be kidding," he thought, turning to face them, still in dragon form.

"Easy there..." said the samurai robot, approaching Matt like he was some kind of wild animal.

Matt looked at the robots and said, "Look, I have the situation under-" Suddenly Stitch sucker-punched Matt into a wall.

Magnetic pincers appeared on the former ambulance's arms before they shot magnetic energy at Stitch. Stitch didn't seem bothered. He picked up a truck and smirked evilly at the ambulance droid before throwing the truck like it was made of cardboard

"Ok, this punk's going down," said the yellow bot that was the compact car. His hands converted into stinger-like devices which shot bolts of electricity at Stitch. Stitch dodged the blasts and ran towards the bot. Before he could react, Stitch lifted him up before throwing him into the samurai bot.

Matt came round, growling before realizing he could hear more growling. He turned to have a hail of plasma balls fired from Hyena explode on him.

Hyena gave a nasty laugh before the big green robot said, "Hey! Knock that off!" His hand converted into a wrecking ball before he swung it at him. Hyena was so concentrated on blasting Matt that he didn't see it coming until it hit him.

Matt waved the smoke away, snarling. "Nice shot," he said, before firing a blast of plasma and knocking the returning Hyena out the air and back down the hole he'd made when Matt had originally jumped up and down on him

Then Stitch approached the former fire truck and said, "Feeboogoo!"

"Uh, I don't know what you just said," said the robot, "But it's a fight you want, you've got it." He reached behind his back and pulled out a large ax. Then a face plate appeared over the lower half of his face.

Stitch settled for scrambling up onto the bot's head, extending his extra limbs and bringing all four fists down. The large robot winced as a sizeable dent was formed in his helmet. But then he reached up and swatted Stitch off. Stitch fell down to the ground. Then the bot lifted his ax and brought it down on Stitch, who caught it with his four hands.

Matt got up. "I think Hyena dislodged a scale," he said before seeing the standoff. "Oh come on," he muttered.

The red and blue robot seemed to be just as strong as Stitch and thus neither of them was able to force the ax one way or the other. Finally, Lilo shouted, "Stitch, down!"

Stitch seemed to come to before jumping out from under the axe. "Lilo!" he said happily, still partially wasted on the coffee running over to her. Matt sighed before shimmering and turning back to human. He wandered over. "What are you?..." began the green bot. Matt held up a hand and pulled out a stun rod. Hyena poked his head up angrily and fluffed up as Matt tapped him with the rod.

Hyena groaned and fell over. "He'll be fine," said Matt, "Just a 400 million volt shock. He'll sleep it off. Er, sorry about the big mess we made here. These guys were on a caffeine rush."

Matt knew what these were, Cybertronians, Autobots judging from the symbols...could be worse. "Nice to meet you," he said.

"Um, greetings," said the red and blue bot, "I am Optimus Prime, commander of this small Autobot force on Earth." He indicated the ambulance bot, the yellow bot, the samurai bot, and the green bot. "These are my men; Ratchet, Bumblebee, Prowl, and Bulkhead."

"Captain Lynch, NSS Bladestorm," said Matt. He noticed worriedly that the one called Ratchet seemed to take an interest at that.

"Hi, I'm Lilo," said Lilo, "This is my dog, Stitch."

"That's a dog?" said Bumblebee.

"Man, this planet gets weirder every day," said Bulkhead.

"We're not from this world, the NS...mmmglh," began Gary, stopping when Matt covered his mouth

"Um, this is our friend, Gary...uh..." Matt faltered as he tried to remember Gary's surname.

"Lesog."

"Lesog, that's it! Gary Lesog."

"That human looks even weirder," said Bulkhead.

"Well, I'm not really completely human," said Gary, "I'm part gargoyle."

Bulkhead looked blank. "What's a gargoyle?" he asked.

"Long story. No time here. My ship's on a schedule, needs fixing," said Matt quickly. He didn't like the gaze Ratchet was giving him.

"But Matt, they're Transformers," said Lilo.

"And we'll be seeing more of them as soon as we leave," said Matt hurriedly as he gathered up Hyena, "Uh, I can send a few of my men to clean up the mess they made here."

--

Back at the temporary base, Matt was giving a little history lesson. "The NSC and Cybertronians aren't exactly on good terms, like this for example," he said, showing a news file. It showed a city in chaos. Transformers were rampaging, shooting at anything moving. The picture flickered to a space battle of a barren planet, NSC ships systematically tearing unknown ships apart.

"Say, how comes they've got a different logo thingy than those guys back in town?" asked Lilo, pointing at the rampaging Transformers.

"This was first contact. The NSC thought they were the only one. A month before we won, a second bunch turned up...and were fired upon," said Matt, gloomily, "A special operations unit mistook them for reinforcements. They were a recon unit...unarmed."

"The way you say it, it sounds like you were leading that special ops unit," said Chip. Matt looked decidedly guilty at this. "You lead that special ops unit?" said Chip.

"No..." said Matt reluctantly. Inside he knew that was an utter lie, but he couldn't face telling them that. "But the Cybertronians count the unit pilots as war criminals."

"So they'll probably not want to help us much with our war," said Chloe.

"That's why we're here," said Matt, "We're here to try to improve the relationship between our two governments."

"We got the job because we were closest." said Matt, cutting off the computer image of a Titan class Leviathan using its doomsday torpedo on a planet's surface.

"Hmm, this is not going to be easy," said Chip, "Sounds like there are plenty of bots left who bear scars from your attacks."

"The Decepticons, the attackers hired assassins, only one pilot left," said Matt gloomily.

"Wait, what are Decepticons?" asked Draco.

Matt turned the viewer back on and zoomed in on the purple symbol of one of the city attackers. "These guys," said Matt.

"So… what's the difference between them and those other guys?" asked Contrinus.

Matt pressed in a few keys and the screen showed the Autobot and the Decepticon insignias. "The Autobots," said Matt, pointing at the insignia, "are the nicer robots. They were primarily built as a work force and most of their personal weapons are really just tools they use for labor. However, the Decepticons are the bad ones. They were built as military robots so they have real weapons. Also, they're the only ones that can fly."

Then the screen shifted to show a blue and white robot with a large hammer in his hand and the Autobot insignia on his chest. It also showed a grey robot with a huge cannon on his right arm and the Decepticon insignia on his chest. "These are the leaders of the two Transformers factions: Ultra Magnus of the Autobots and Megatron of the Decepticons. Ultra Magnus is a peaceful bot who only wants what's best for Cybertron. Megatron, however, is a tyrant who thinks the Decepticons should rule the universe. At some point during the Cybertronian War, the Decepticons were banished from Cybertron, but I think they're still around."

"Their fleeing armies went slap bang into a colony system," said Matt, gloomily.

"Let me guess, these guys have a very low opinion towards organic life, right?" said Chip.

"Nope, they have no opinion at all. Imagine an army of Mertles crossed with Draconus's lack of restraint." said Matt, striking out for an example

Lilo grimaced and said, "Not a good combination."

"Especially since they're all giant robots," said Draco.

"We hammered their orbiting fleet, but the planet was an industrialized moon, a giant city. Imagine how hard it would be to find Decepticons in the city?" said Matt. "We lost nearly 2000 men a day to ambushes."

"Their ability to transform into vehicle modes probably helped made their ambushed more affective," said Chloe.

"Yeah, plus they could scan a ruined tank and pretend to be a ruined vehicle among the bodies," said Matt, gloomily, "We brought a new model of mech unit into the field in response, so we could at least meet em on their terms. It worked insanely well, mostly cause the mecha's were...undead to them."

"Undead?" said Megan.

"Well, our mechas are inanimate objects, not like the Transformers. To them, a mecha's a puppet that's disturbingly similar to them," said Matt, "Plus, normally a Cybertronian notices when its arm is blown off and doesn't, say...pick it up and use it as a mallet."

"So how did the Autobots get involved with this?" asked Contrinus.

"A...a recon unit teleported in...to investigate. The mecha unit had just finished a mission...mistook them for backup...2 got away," said Matt, obviously uncomfortable with the subject.

"So the Autobots don't trust us," said Chip.

"No," said Matt, "That's why we're heading to Cybertron, to patch things up with them. Unfortunately, it looks like it'll take a while to repair the jump drive."

--

The Autobots returned to their base after their encounter with Stitch and Hyena. Optimus was going to go to his quarters to consider the event when the computer beeped. He walked over and looked at the screen. "It's a message from Cybertron, the Autobot Council," he said. After the incidents with Wasp and Lockdown, Jazz had given the Earth team the supplies they needed to contact Cybertron when needed.

When Optimus activated the message, the face of a sagely-looking robot appeared. "Alpha Trion, sir," said Optimus, saluting the Head of the Civilian Guilds.

"Optimus Prime, we were hoping you could help. You might have heard about the trouble the N.S.C have been having with some warlord or emperor or some such," said Alpha Trion.

"The N.S.C.?" said Optimus, "Are you referring to the aliens involved in the Ghost Pilots Massacre?"

"Your knowledge of Cybertronian history is impressive," remarked Alpha Trion.

"Thank you, sir," said Optimus, "I think it's important to learn from the past to prepare for the future."

The Cybertronian elder continued. "Well, they have requested help again and the Council has agreed to at least meet with their ambassador. But the ship appears to have gone off course. It was last detected in your area. Has anyone...strange turned up?" he said.

"Well, now that you mentioned it, we did encounter some strange beings about a megacycle ago," said Optimus, "They said they were from another world."

"Hmm...be careful, there is a rumor that they have a ghost pilot commanding the ambassador's ship," said Alpha Trion.

"I will keep an optic out for anything like that," said Optimus.

"Yes, and if so, keep your other optic on Field Tech Ratchet."

"Ratchet? Why?"

"Because he was one of the two survivors of that unfortunate incident," said Alpha Trion.

Optimus sighed. "Don't worry, if these people are the ambassador team, I'll make sure nothing goes wrong," he said

"Very well, Optimus, I'll leave it your servos," said Alpha Trion before signing off.

As Optimus walked away, he said to himself, "I hope I know what I'm getting us into."

* * *

There's the first chapter of my new story. I have really high hopes for this story, seeing how it's been burning a hole in my brain for about half a year now. Just to let you know, this story is based on the continuing saga me and my co-author are doing. We're coming into the Transformers universe about a few days after the events of 'Human Error'. Gary Lesog's introduction story is my account on deviantART. Anyways, I plan to introduce quite a few new Transformers to this story, so you'll definitely want to hang around for more updates. The next chapter should be up soon. Please review.


	2. Avarice and Wrath

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 2: Avarice and Wrath**

Since the jump drive was not operational, Matt called Davine to tell him that they were unable to make to Cybertron anytime soon.

"Well, I did warn them that the Phoenix classes have glitchy jump stabilizers," said Davine.

Matt said, "Well, we did bump into some Cybertronians, based outta Detroit."

"Hmm, well, since Cybertron's unreachable at the moment, I suggest you try to bond with the Cybertronians on Earth," said Davine, "They are Autobots, right?"

Matt nodded. "Yes...that's why I'm still in one piece," he said in a sarcastic voice. It had been a late night.

"Well, we need as good a chance as we can get with the Autobots," said Davine, "Until the jump drive is repaired, you will stay in Detroit and attempt to befriend these Autobots. Or, if you want, you can make this your primary goal."

Matt sighed. "I recognize one of them though..." he said but sighed as Davine cut the communication.

Matt moaned to himself and said, "I hope my charisma's effective on robots. Though with my history, I wouldn't count on it."

--

The next day, Matt, Chloe Megan, Gary, and Weirdwolf were headed back into Detroit. "We have to make a start on this 'ambassador' smeg. I much prefer blowing stuff up," said Matt.

"Which is exactly why you're never hired out for peace missions," said Chloe.

"Unless I'm the bodyguard," said Matt with a hint of pride.

Just then, they saw an arrow shoot through the air. "What was-" started Megan but was cut off when Weirdwolf started chasing after it, barking happily. Megan, who was holding his leash, was dragged along in the snow.

Matt sighed and wandered towards the alley the arrow had come from with Chloe. "Hmm...12 hours without weirdness...a new record," said Matt. The shooter appeared to be…

"Is that Robin Hood?" said Chloe, confused.

The man dressed in green stared after the path of the arrow. "Dash it all," he said in an old-fashioned British accent, "Yon bounding hound is going to intercept my shot. I should have chosen a balcony of greater leverage."

"Who the smeg are you, buster?" said Matt.

"Behold, young knave, the Angry Archer, proprietor of this city's treasures." The Angry Archer drew his bow and said, "Now if you were to stand aside, you're eclipsing my field of view."

Matt and Chloe looked at him. "Do you know what we are?" said Matt, in an overly-friendly voice.

"I know that you're very naughty people," said a sickly sweet voice. Matt and Chloe turned around to see a little girl with pink hair, a pink dress, and a black mask riding a floating yellow unicorn doll.

Chloe looked. "Oh god, it's Barbie," she said in an 'I-Can't-Believe-This' voice.

Just then, Weirdwolf came back with the arrow in his mouth. A very disheveled Megan was right behind him. "Bad dog!" she said, "You're a very naughty dog!"

"I agree," said the little girl, "But don't worry dear, Professor Princess can fix up your icky doggy." She pulled out what looked like a fairy wand and zapped Weirdwolf with a pink beam. When the fairy dust cleared, Weirdwolf was now wearing a poodle haircut. "There, now isn't that pretty?" said Professor Princess.

Matt, Megan, and Chloe stared. Gary ran up behind Megan. "Wow...I need to exercise...what happened to Weirdwolf? Wait, who's the pink person?" he said.

Chloe glared and transformed to dragon form. "Lunch?" she said, evilly.

"Ew! It's a big nasty lizard," said Professor Princess.

"Not to worry," said the Angry Archer, "We can vanquish this loathsome wyrm."

Chloe opened her mouth and roared. At close range, it was about gale force. The Angry Archer turned to see Matt had his arm round his shoulder. "That's my sister, that is..and this is my pulse blaster in your ear," he said conversationally.

Suddenly, an orange and black blur passed in front of Matt. When it was gone, so was Matt's blaster. "Hey! What the?"

Matt looked to see a guy in an orange and black speedsuit. "Nice gun," he said, "Hope you don't mind losing it."

Matt shrugged. "I just keep it for looks. Tell me...is that powered by a plasma cell?" he said.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" said the guy and tried to blast Matt with the gun. However, the gun's security system recognized him as not Matt and thus zapped him until he dropped it.

Matt smirked. "You like it? Now, start running...or I will be forced to eat you," he said, his eyes glowing like Chloe's currently were as she, Gary, and Megan tried to catch Professor Princess.

The guy grinned and said, "If you insist." He instantly disappeared in a blaze of orange and black. As Matt tried to figure out where he went, something hit him in the back at an incredibly high speed.

Matt glared and concentrated. A translucent plasma shield appeared in front of him. There was a buzzing noise and the suited guy appeared. "Hi..." said Matt and punched him.

The guy went flying into a wall. "Now then to take care of..." Matt was cut off when a beam made of blue rings hit him. Suddenly, his speed was reduced to a crawl, including his speech.

Matt was barely able to turn his head to see the woman in the odd timepiece-based outfit holding a glowing watch. "Not so fast, kiddo," she said, "Nobody messes with my posse. And thanks to this little chroniton gizmo we snatched, you're frozen, paralyzed, stiff as a board."

Weirdwolf had just gotten rid of his 'new look' and looked around. He wasn't bothered, these new people were great fun. He looked up and saw a figure zapping Matt. 'YAY' he thought and flew up and tackled her, playing tug-of-war with the device that was doing the zapping.

"Hey! Get your slobbering jaws of my stopper," said Slo-Mo, "Shoo, beat it, scram, vamoose!"

Weirdwolf's doggy brain translated this as 'QUICK! MORE LICKING!!' and proceeded to obey.

However, Weirdwolf still hadn't learned to control the acid content in his saliva and he soon dissolved the weapon. In fact, he started to chew on the softening metal like it was a big chew toy.

Slo-Mo watched in horror as Weirdwolf swallowed her timepiece and sucked up the chain like pasta. He burped happily and wagged his tail.

"You idiot mutt!" she shouted, "You ruined my timepiece, trashed it, broke it, demolished it!"

Then Matt came out of his paralysis and punched Slo-Mo out. Then he patted Weirdwolf on the head. "Good boy. Remind me to go back in time and get you a dinosaur bone," he said to the mutant canine and screamed as Weirdwolf licked his hand.

The other villains were trying to make a break for it and stopped as the Autobots turned up. Chloe's roar had been as good as a comm signal. Professor Princess tried to blast them away, but one shot from Ratchet's EMP generator short-circuited Powdered Sugar, Angry Archer's arrows, and Nanosec's suit.

Chloe came round the corner, with Megan and Gary in their fighting forms. Matt ran round the corner after them. "When I get my hands on that pink powder puff..." he began and saw the Autobots. "Erm...oh my goodness...a dragon," he said in an extremely unconvincing voice.

"I see that your companions have dealt with the S.U.V. quite effectively," said Optimus, "Good work, um, it was Matt Lynch, wasn't it?"

Matt nodded. "Yeah...ok, Chloe, we're rumbled," he said. Chloe rolled her eyes and turned back. As if they hadn't been rumbled when they'd arrived.

"So, I'm presuming you're the ambassadorial team sent by N.S.C.," said Optimus, "If that's the case, then welcome to Detroit. Er, I didn't think we'd be meeting in rather...awkward circumstances."

"Oh, I'm not a full time ambassador," said Matt.

"Really? We hadn't guessed," said Bumblebee, sounding sarcastic.

Bulkhead was looking down at Weirdwolf. "Is this guy another alien?" he asked.

Weirdwolf barked happily. Megan said, "Oh, that's Weirdwolf...erm...don't let him lick you."

Prowl knelt down and started petting Weirdwolf on the head, who panted happily. "Seems like a friendly creature," he said. "Yeah, too friendly," said Matt.

Chloe said, "Erm...note the drool," pointing to where Weirdwolf's drool was pockmarking the road.

Prowl quickly withdrew his hand. "Hmm, I'm not sure if it's as affective as Meltdown's acid, but I do not want to experiment that," he said.

"Good idea. Let's try a proper intro. Captain Matthew Lynch, professional mercenary," said Matt.

"And I'm Chloe Lynch, his sister," said Chloe.

"I'm Megan Roph," said Megan.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Bulkhead," said Bulkhead, taking Chloe by the hand and shaking it.

Matt watched."Ok, can you put my sister down? She's turning green," he said after a minute. He turned to see Ratchet and asked "Who're you?"

"Field Tech Ratchet," said Ratchet gruffly. He gave Matt a suspicious glare and said, "But I believe we've met before."

"No...don't think so...where might we have met?" said Matt, returning the glare.

"A certain planet called Janus IX," said Ratchet, "Sound familiar?"

"It was in the news, huge NSC command screw up. I was on the other side of the multiverse, sister hunting," said Matt.

"Were you now?" said Ratchet, "Don't suppose you might have seen anything like this?" The windshield on his chest projected an image of a white robotic suit with no face.

"Ghost model combat mecha, I was kicked by its prototype, the centaur class," said Matt. This wasn't a lie. He remembered the mecha Dante had tried to stomp him with back during the Exo-Gene incident.

Ratchet deepened his glare and said, "I think we need to have a private chat later." Then he transformed to vehicle mode and drove off.

Matt watched him go. This would not end well. "So...where do you guys hang out?" said Matt.

--

Unknown to all of them, there was another robot in the vicinity. And he was definitely no Transformer.

Mantichrome and his Monstercons were watching from a nearby rooftop. "So, the Bladestorm crew's here too?" said Mantichrome, "Just my luck. I can't go on one mission without those idiots..."

He suddenly went rigid as his power cells shocked him."GAAAAHGNIVIDIGH!" he said before glaring. "I told him he'd left part of the spell out," he muttered.

He looked down to see the police arriving to haul away the SUV and the Autobots driving off. "Hmm, those Autobots are going to be a problem," said Mantichrome, "I'm going to need bigger firepower to deal with them."

Leafstripper looked down as well. "Leafstripper think this bad plan. They squish us before we combine," he said

"True, besides, your combined form's not much bigger than they are," said Mantichrome. Mantichrome looked thoughtful for a minute before saying, "Just to make sure we have no interference, let's see how big the criminal activity is here in Detroit." He extended a wire from his claw that plugged into a nearby satellite dish.

He skipped through the TV channels, almost going mad when he ended up locked on reruns of Sesame Street for 30 minutes till he came across a news report documenting an incident. It showed what was clearly a Cybertronian body with a weird head on it, spouting strange words like 'noob' and 'total ownage'.

Mantichrome watched the footage with interest as the Cybertronian body engaged the red and blue Autobot he had just seen. Then the Autobot, Optimus Prime as the report was calling him, tricked the pilot of the body, one Henry Masterson, into transforming his hijacked body, only for the transformation process to pop his Headmaster Unit off and the headless body to plummet into the river.

Leafstripper peered over Mantichrome's shoulder. "Oooh...that must cause terrible processor pain," he said.

Mantichrome finished watching and said, "Gentlemen, we are going on a diving expedition."

"Oh, Leafstripper hate being water. Makes wings too drippy to fly."

Mantichrome gave him an odd look and said, "I think I need to reinforce your head. You get your language chip damaged way too often."

--

Riding inside the Autobots wasn't as uncomfortable as Matt had thought. It was pretty much like a normal vehicle, only the vehicle itself was doing all the driving.

Matt had just started to fall asleep when the car stopped. They had arrived at a large tower. "Nice tower..." he said, getting out.

Matt jumped slightly as the car he was in turned into Bumblebee. "I suppose I'll have to get used to that," he said.

"So...what is this place?" said Matt.

"This is Sumdac Tower, owned by Professor Isaac Sumdac," said Bumblebee, "He's a good friend of ours and a whiz at robotics. Well, at least by human standards."

Matt looked up before looking at the readings on his wrist computer. According to them, there was a half-built warp gate on the roof.

"I bet he's a pretty busy guy," said Matt.

"I'll say," said Bumblebee as the group started to walk in, "If it weren't for Sari, he'd probably just sleep in his lab every night."

Matt looked up at Bumblebee. "Who's Sari?" he said before his scanner screwed up.

"Professor Sumdac's daughter and my best friend," said Bumblebee.

"Hey! I thought I was your best friend!" said Bulkhead.

"I mean, my best human friend," said Bumblebee.

Matt slapped his wristcomputer. "Stupid thing, life sign systems on the fritz again," he muttered.

"Yeah, I have trouble figuring out what Sari is too," said Bumblebee.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Megan.

"Well, Sari's...not quite like other humans," said Prowl.

Matt wandered round a corner and saw a teenage red head that was apparently the weird signal. He never confirmed it cause at that point the signal made his wrist computer explode.

"Hey guys," she said, "Who's your friends?" The girl walked over. Matt noted she was wearing a short yellow dress and from her skin tone, he'd say she was of Hindi descent. But her blue eyes seemed rather out of place.

"Hey there. My name's Matthew, Matt to my friends," Matt said.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Sari," she said, shaking Matt's hand. Matt was a bit puzzled when he felt the bones underneath her skin felt a lot harder than he would have suspected.

Then Chloe walked over and shook Sari's hand, saying, "I'm Chloe Lynch, his sister..." She trailed off and said, "You've got an abnormal amount of electricity in you."

Sari looked hesitatingly at Optimus who said, "Don't worry. They're even less human than you are."

Sari breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's because I'm half-Cybertronian."

Matt and Chloe's mouths fell open.

"Yeah, that's pretty much how we reacted too," said Bumblebee.

The ice breaker was when Weirdwolf came up and looked at Sari, curiously before barking happily.

"Cool dog," said Sari before petting him on the head.

"Er...yeah..." said Matt slowly, "Just don't let him lick you. It's acidic."

Chloe nodded and said, "Take it from us."

Then Megan came forward and said, "Hi, I'm Megan Roph. I'm half-alien too." She transformed her head before switching back, "See?"

"Neat," said Sari, "How'd that happen?"

"Well, I stole some DNA from my 'uncle' and mutated myself with it. What about you?"

"Apparently, I was a protoform and I scanned my dad's DNA when he touched me," said Sari.

"You know...I'm actually not surprised," said Matt, in a bored voice.

"Can you transform too?" asked Megan.

"Sure thing," said Sari and her body quickly covered itself in robotic armor. "Not bad, eh?" she said in a now robotic voice.

Matt whistled. "Now that's smegging impressive," he said.

Then Sari shifted back to her human mode and said, "So what are you guys?"

"Mostly human..." said Matt. Chloe made frantic 'Don't guess' signals behind her brother.

Then Sari noticed Gary and said, "You haven't introduced me to your other friend."

"Oh, sorry," said Gary, "I am Gary Lesog, weregoyle."

"A weregoyle? You mean you turn under the full moon and can't touch silver and stuff?" asked Sari. "Well, not just under the full moon," said Gary, "And I'm not certain about the silver yet."

Matt nodded. "I dunno much about him. He just joined the gang. By the way, what was with the idiots in the weird costumes?"

"Oh, the SUV are nothing but small-time crooks," said Sari, "The only time they've ever been a real threat was when they were working with Swindle."

"Ah...I think I heard him...weapon dealer...500 thousand bounty," said Chloe in an interested voice.

Then Gary looked towards the front door and said, "I hear someone coming." Matt and Chloe looked to see Lilo and Stitch come through the door, along with a disguised Jumba and Pleakley.

"Wow, what a big reception room," said Pleakley, "You could host a- WAH! GIANT ROBOTS!" He started running around the room screaming.

"Meet the worst disguised aliens in any universe you care to name," said Matt.

Jumba approached Prowl and said, "Impressive automatons. Technology here is nearly good as Jumba's. Where is power unit contained?"

Matt sighed. "Why don't you ask them? They're sentient," he said in Splitter.

"Is that so?" asked Jumba.

To prove his point, Prowl asked, "Just how could you pass among humans in such paltry disguises?"

Chloe shrugged and said, "People are dumb."

"That is true. Take Stitch for example," said Matt, pointing to where Lilo was trying to keep the still-caffeine-addled experiment in check. "They don't notice him. They think he's a dog."

"And yet they'd notice a motorcycle without a rider," said Prowl thoughtfully.

"Another world, another road," said Matt, in a bored voice.

--

Meanwhile, a small barge was floating down the river. The crew was more concerned about keeping an eye out for anything they might run into. So no one was minding the many crates in the cargo.

One of the crates opened and Leafstripper peered out, just as an ensign peered at his crate.

The two looked at each other for a few seconds before screaming. The ensign started to run away when a crate was dropped on him, both pinning him and knocking him out. "Couldn't you have found a better hiding spot?" said Deathgrip as he crawled down from the top of the crates in his Crawdad form.

Leafstripper pointed. "SQUISHY HUMAN!!"

Deathgrip sighed before changing to robot mode and smacking Leafstripper. "Grow a proper exoskeleton and stop springing oil leaks every time you're surprised," he said. Just then, one of the big crates opened up to let out Roughshell in Xiphosura mode.

"Why are we on this floating can in the first place?" he said in a bored voice.

"We need to get out into the river," said Deathgrip, "And we need to do so without alerting the humans or the Autobots."

"Then I say we quit dragging our claws and dive in," said Whipsting as he came out of his crate in Wadjet mode.

Whipsting flew over to the porthole and opened it up. He was about to jump out when Deathgrip grabbed his tail and pulled him back. "What's the big idea?" demanded Whipsting.

Deathgrip made a 'shhh' voice and pointed to where an old hubcap sailed by. 10 Spiderbots were in it humming a pirate song. One of them looked and waved at them. Then the spiderbot jumped through the porthole. Deathgrip dodged it, but it landed on Leafstripper, who had just changed to his robot mode.

The spiderbot wasn't bothered, cutting Leafstripper's head off and jumping back out, dragging Leafstripper's body with it.

Deathgrip groaned and said, "We're at the coordinates anyways. Over the sides."

As they jumped out they got a look at a mini 'galleon' made from bits of Leafstripper. The spiderbots did return his feet however, throwing them at him.

The three Monstercons (four if you count Leafstripper's head) dived down to the bottom of the river. They switched on the lights in their optics, illuminating the riverbed.

"This demeaning...want body back," moaned Leafstripper till Deathgrip shoved one of Leafstripper's returned feet into his audio receptor.

"Ok, I think Mantichrome's punishment scrambled his processor. There's nothing down here," he said

"Hang on a sec," said Whipsting, "I found something." Deathgrip and Roughshell went over to where Whipsting was to see a large robotic body halfway buried in the riverbed. However, enough dirt was removed from the left wing to reveal the Decepticon insignia on it.

"Decepticon? What does the boss want with this rustbucket?" said Whipsting.

"Apparently this body belong to a very significant Decepticon," said Deathgrip, "If nothing else, it'll at least prove useful data. Roughshell, start dragging this thing down to the lake. I'll start on decrypting his data."

"Erm, what about the spiderbots? They're still up there," said Roughshell. All the other Monstercons understood the worry, especially after last time.

"I never said to go back on land," said Deathgrip, "The current should help you move this carcass."

"We still need to distract them..." said Whipsting thoughtfully before grabbing Leafstripper. "Cya back at camp," he said and threw the head back up to the surface and into the view scanners of the spiderbots who cheered and tried out the weapon on their 'ship'...Leafstripper's looted gun.

"That was cruel," said Deathgrip.

Whipsting sighed, "But effective."

--

During the Monstercons' excursion to the bottom of the river, the gang had just managed to calm Pleakley down. Now they were taking a tour of Sumdac Tower. Along the way, Sari related her own adventures with the Autobots.

"Sounds like you've had an interesting life," said Matt, "...and here I thought the fates only had it in for me."

"So you're saying both leaders of the Cybertronian factions are out of commission right now?" said Chloe.

"Who's in charge?" said Matt, out of interest.

"Well, I haven't any idea with the Decepticons," said Bumblebee, the only Autobot besides Prowl who could walk inside the hallways, "But Sentinel Prime's going to take up the position of Magnus as soon as he gets to Cybertron."

"Oh...what happened to the last guy?" said Matt.

Bumblebee frowned and said in a low voice, "Our Head of Autobot Intel was really a Decepticon double agent named Shockwave. He attacked Ultra Magnus and stole his hammer." Matt could tell from Bumblebee's tone that he had some kind of history with this Shockwave.

"Ok..." he said, dropping the subject, "So...must be cool living here."

"Well, sometimes it's hard to sleep with all the hammering and drilling going on," said Sari as they reached Professor Sumdac's lab.

The portal generator looked almost finished. "Nice warp gate," Matt said, walking over to it.

Suddenly, an Indian man in a green lab coat ran in front of Matt and said, "Please do not touch it. This is very delicate equipment and- Wait a minute, who are you?"

"Matthew Lynch," said Matt, getting back from the warp gate. He had no intention of going on a free space trip.

"It's ok, Dad, they're with me," said Sari, "These guys are from another universe."

"Oh, that's nice," said Professor Sumdac as he went back to working on a space bridge part, "It's nice to see Sari have some human friends."

Matt and Chloe put on prize-winning poker faces. "Yes....human," said Matt innocently.

"What is device you are working on?" asked Jumba.

"Ah, this is the tachyon encoder," said Professor Sumdac, "It realigns the tachyons of anyone passing through."

"It would if the circuits weren't in the wrong pattern," said Bulkhead, who was also working on the machine.

"The circuitry's fine," said Sumdac, "But it would definitely be useless if it were installed next to the particle filters like you said."

Jumba wandered over. "Hmm...would be vorking better here," he said absently, pointing to a circuit junction on the blueprint.

"Don't be silly, that's..." Sumdace paused and said, "Yes, actually that would allow the energy to flow more smoothly."

"As long as someone doesn't forget they're supposed to be connected to the homing beacon generator," said Bulkhead.

Jumba perked up. He hadn't had this much fun since he worked on 626's DNA code.

"Here, let me see if I can align proper circuit pattern," said Jumba.

"Wait, what do you know about space bridges?" said Bulkhead. "Well, I have been able to build hyperdrive engines from scratch materials," said Jumba.

Matt looked over at this. "Then he's gonna help fix our ship," he said, grabbing Jumba's arm.

"Why do you need this thing anyway?" asked Lilo.

"Well, it's mostly because we don't have a ship anymore," said Prowl, "Seeing how it's transwarping randomly around the galaxy with Megatron and Starscream in it."

Matt looked over in horror. "Wait...he's dead," he said, in a terrified voice.

"Yeah, that's what we though too," said Bumblebee, "But it turns out his head just separated from his body and was sitting here until someone reattached it to his body."

"Do you really have to bring that up?" said Sumdac, "I told you he tricked me into thinking he was an Autobot."

Matt's thoughts immediately were occupied. 'I'm dead meat!' was the thought occupying it. Megatron had been the one to issue the contracts on the Ghost unit.

"Another reason is that we need to rescue that ship," said Ratchet as he appeared behind Matt.

Matt jumped and said, "How did you get here? For that matter, how did Bulkhead get here?"

"There's an elevator over there," said Bulkhead, pointing towards a big lift.

"Oh...kinda obvious when I think about it," said Matt, wandering over to look at it and accidently slipping on some oil and off the edge.

Sari was about to panic when Matt flew back up in his dragon form and landed back on the lab floor. He shifted back and said, "Now you can see why we're mostly human."

This seemed to mollify Ratchet a bit. After all, he'd still been listed s 'human' in the old Ghost files.

"So, why do you need to 'rescue' your ship?" asked Matt.

"Because that ship's more than just a ship," said Ratchet, "He's Omega Supreme."

Matt looked confused. "The superweapon? That's just a rumor…" he said before stopping. "Never mind," he said in a bored voice. "Xavier said I needed to do flight exercises every day anyhow," He added, transforming to dragon form and flying off.

Ratchet watched after Matt and said, "I still think he's hiding something. Better keep an optic on him."

--

Meanwhile, Mantichrome had discovered much useful information from the Decepticon body, which he can now identify as Starscream. Though he was a bit concerned to see Leafstripper missing his body...again and that had a pirate's eye patch superglued to his face. But that was unimportant when Mantichrome learned that Starscream had a base.

A lunar probe satellite provided the perfect portal to where the base was. The base turned out to be a wrecked Decepticon 'black saber' class battleship. "Hmm, not elegant, but the prize should be worthy beyond measure," said Mantichrome as he hovered towards the wreck.

The inside of the ship was in tatters. Clusters of Decepticon clones sat in alcoves, awaiting protoforms. Mantichrome noted that they all resembled Starscream. "Hmm, looks like he had one super big superego," he said. He floated over to a computer and said, "Let's see if we can find anything useful."

A video log appeared. "Soon, my clones will allow me to crush Megatron and take my rightful place as master of the Decepticons. The next time I enter this, I will..."

Mantichrome cut it off. "He sounds like a SMID."

Mantichrome backed up the log to its start. "Let this recording act as a document for Cybertronian history," said Starscream, "In a few megacycles, my clone army and I will finally destroy Megatron and allow me to take my true place as leader of the Decepticons. I've constructed five clones to make sure I have the numbers advantage, but I'm keeping two in reserve in case something should go wrong.

In case, the tables have turned somehow, I'll activate a signal that shall install their Allspark chips that I have picked out for them. Of course, they might not be necessary at all. Soon my clones will..."

Mantichrome paused the log. "Boy, he's vainer than I thought," he said.

He noticed a button and pushed it. A wall opened up to reveal two Starscream clones. One of them was primarily teal in color while the other was a deep red. As Mantichrome watched, two mechanical arms reached out and place glowing blue crystal shards into the cockpits on their chest. "Hmm... these will make very useful minions," he said.

The red one turned on. "Where am I? Where is Megatron?" he said, looking around with his pulse lasers on overcharge.

"Starscream has failed in his task," said Mantichrome, "I am your master now."

"You are not the boss of me!" shouted the Starscream clone, "I should crush you into a ball and kicked it into Earth's atmosphere so you could burn up! I hate that stupid planet!"

Mantichrome took a step back in shock from the sudden tirade. At the same time the teal-colored clone powered up

"Hey? What's this? It's mine!" said the Starscream clone, grabbing an empty energon container. "Oh, and this is mine, and this is mine, and this is mine..." He grabbed various pieces of junk before glaring at Mantichrome. "What are you looking at? You can't have any! It's all mine, you hear me?"

Mantichrome and the red clone looked at each other. Their expressions agreed that the teal clone was an idiot.

"Will you shut up?!" snapped the red clone, "You're really getting on my circuits. In fact, both of you are getting on my circuits. I should slag you all right now!"

Mantichrome yelled, "SHUUUT UUUUP!!!" his patience system on overload.

The two clones glared at Mantichrome. "Why are we listening to you? You're not our creator," said the red one.

"He probably pays poorly too," said the teal one.

"Cause, erm...I know who blew your master up," said Mantichrome, trying a new tactic.

The red one immediately turned his blasters towards Mantichrome. "Spill it droid, or I decorate this room with your primitive components!"

Mantichrome plugged into a holo-emmiter and a group photo of Matt and his team appeared. "These organics did it. I saw it myself," he said.

"Humans? Destroy Starscream? Impossible!" said the red one. "It had to have been the Autobots. Tell me where they are or I blow that antique processor of yours out of your head!"

Mantichrome inwardly sniggered. He'd done some digging in the sealed files of NSC command and found a very nice file. "Their leader is a 'ghost.' You surely know them," he said.

"Ooh, a ghost, he'll be so valuable on the black market," said the teal one, rubbing his hands with anticipation.

"Slag those humans!" snapped the red one, "Tell me where the Autobots are so I can slag them!" He fired over Mantichrome's head to prove his point.

"He's most likely allied with the Autobots..." said Mantichrome hurriedly.

"WHERE ARE THE AUTOBOTS!?!" yelled the red clone, blasting at Mantichrome again. Mantichrome hid behind a control panel to avoid being destroyed.

"Where the ghost pilot is," he said, peering out.

The red clone was about to blast Mantichrome again when the teal one said, "Wait, we can't get any data from him if he's cinders." Then he turned to Mantichrome and asked with a fake sweet voice, "Could you tell us where we can find the Autobots and this most valuable human?"

Mantichrome stuck a hand into the computer screen, hacking the US spy network. "Detroit...Mr. Lynch is over downtown Detroit. The others are in a location in the mountains and with the Autobot signals at Sumdac towers," he said in a bland voice as the Spy A.I talked through him

"I will blast that tower to the ground!" shouted the red one.

"But there may be something very valuable in there," said the teal one, "But I got dibs on this Lynch human. Don't touch him, he's mine!" The two of them transformed into jets and flew out.

--

Matt was flying over the old Detroit area. It was perfect as there was nobody there and no police drones either. Peace and quiet.

The quiet was quickly disturbed when he heard the whining of an incoming jet. Matt quickly barrel-rolled out of the way as a deep red futuristic harrier jet shot past him. "AIR HOG!" he roared, getting the right way up again.

After his outrage abated, Matt wondered why a military aircraft like that would be doing over Detroit. Then he noticed the jet was heading towards Sumdac Tower. Immediately, things clicked into place.

"No way..." he said and started to fly after it when a teal colored one fired on him. Matt quickly dodged the shots. "Hey! Watch it!" he yelled.

The teal-colored jet suddenly transformed into a large robot. "What is this?" said the robot, "Who cares? It's mine! I'm taking it!"

Matt stared. "WHO THE HELLS ARE YOU?" He roared, glaring angrily.

"I'm Clone #149150," said the teal robot, "And you're my prisoner."

Matt looked at him. "Yeah, right. Out the way, jet boy," he said, flying past him and clunking him with his tail as he went.

The teal robot was barely harmed and flew after Matt. "As soon as I have you, I'll searched for that valuable ghost pilot. Maybe you know where he is," said the robot.

Matt turned and stopped in mid air. "Bye," he said and spat a full stream of plasma into the clones face.

The clone winced and paused in midair as the Allspark fragment in his chest repaired the damage to his face. When he had recovered, he looked around to see Matt was gone. "Where'd that strange Earth creature go?" he said, "Oh well, I bet there's a lot more to loot at that base camp." He transformed to jet mode and flew off.

--

Meanwhile, Jumba, Isaac, and Bulkhead were really getting into the space bridge project. Prowl was sitting in a corner and practicing his mediation. Naturally, the younger ones got bored and went off to the roof.

Chloe was looking out when she saw a jet approaching. "What the hell? WARDEN, is there any military jets cleared for Detroit airspace?" she said.

"Negative, Decepticon energy signature detected," replied WARDEN.

Chloe took a few steps back. "Guys?" she said.

Suddenly, the jet transformed into robot mode and the red clone started blasting at the tower, which fortunately activated its shield in time. "Come out of there, Autobots!" shouted the clone.

Chloe growled, her eyes turning solid yellow. "You overgrown plane," she said.

The clone seemed incredibly determined. It would not stop firing, even if all his shots had no affect on the shield. "You will come out of there, Autobots!" he yelled, "Or else I'll burn the rest of the city!"

Chloe glared letting the Decepticon get a good look. "Get LOST!" she yelled and a pillar-sized column of lightning shot out and hit the clone.

The clone only seemed to be more enraged. "You dare strike me, organic?! Feel the wrath of Clone #397601!" Suddenly, the blasters on his arms adjusted and energon flames started shooting out of them.

The lightning in the blast was trouble though for the clone as it bent at two right angles under Chloe's direction and hit the clone.

The Starscream clone roared in fury and started trying to punch his way through the force field.

"So...who's anger management over there?" said Chloe, panting from exhausting her electrical powers.

"That guy must be one of Starscream's clones," said Bumblebee, "They each represent an aspect of his personality."

"Let me guess...anger?" said Chloe, looking at the clone.

"Obviously," said Sari.

"Ok, here's the plan," said Chloe, "We need to get Thrust here away from the tower before he wrecks the city."

"Thrust?" asked Megan.

"The guy's engines are connected to his blasters, that's how he makes those flames," said Chloe, "That and he has vertical takeoff engines on his wings."

"Let's see what happens when he has no power to his thrusters," said Chloe, concentrating.

She tried to concentrate on draining Thrust's power reserves, but energon couldn't be converted to simple electricity so easily and she could drain anything out of him.

"Dammit, someone clip his wings...NOW!" she yelled, actually causing the local computers to flicker.

"I better get Prowl," said Bumblebee, "His armor makes him the only flyer on this team."

Chloe glared. "A flyer?" she said, her shape shimmering.

Bumblebee watched as Chloe shifted into her dragon form. "Oh, right," said Bumblebee, "I guess I should have expected that. You know, Matt being your brother and all."

'Chloe' turned to look at Bumblebee, her eyes a worrying red. "That idiot?" she said.

"Um, Chloe, are you feeling ok?" asked Lilo.

"You...where's general NegaMorph?" 'Chloe' said. A second later, a thud got her attention. She turned and growled so angrily even Thrust went back a bit for a second.

"I better deal with this idiot first," said 'Chloe' before flying towards Thrust.

"What's gotten into her?" asked Gary.

"I think Silvia has," said Lilo.

--

The teal Starscream clone however was having his own problems. Yes, he was greedy but he also had a sense of preservation. The firebases defenses were all online and already the surrounding area had been reduced to a semi-molten state by the sheer amount of firepower.

"Ow! Quit it! Ooh, this looks valuable! Ow! Stop!" shouted the teal clone, "I just want the ghost pilot so hand him before, ooh, I could sell that later." A hail of pulse blats dissolved the boulder behind the clone. "Yah...I don't want it that much...STOPPIT!" he yelled as a sparrowhawk fighter shoot a missile in his back before zipping away.

"Ok, that's it, I've had enough!" shouted the clone. His engines started firing up, filling the air with their sound. But for some reason, because of their construction, the sound came out as a soul-chilling shriek which struck fear into the hearts of the mercs.

It didn't worry Captain Alice who was flying the sparrowhawk. If anything this gave her a wonderful target for a missile. Of course, that was before the clone fired back at her and clipped the edge of her wing. This did allow a railgun to shoot the clone, knocking him down before he could finish off Alice.

Just then, Matt flew back from his exercise and saw the mess the clone was making. "Oh come on," he said, "I can't leave for one hour without..." Suddenly, the clone started up his engines again, creating the terrifying shriek. Matt winced and sent a blast of plasma that turned into several small wyvern shapes that rammed the clone with several explosions.

The clone turned and spotted Matt. "You again!" he said, "I don't know what you are, but I bet there's a nice zoo I can sell you to. Come here!" He leapt into the air and flew at Matt, intensifying the unearthly cry of his engines.

Matt tackled him in the air and the two hit the ground with a crash. Matt took advantage to bite down on the clone's left thruster, tearing it off and spitting it out. "Bleh..." he said

The clone winced and was about to fire upon Matt when more laser blasts distracted him. Then Techo ran out to Matt and said, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," said Matt, "But we better keep Dirge from wailing again or the men won't be able to hold their morale?"

Techo raised an eyebrow. "Dirge?" "Cause of that sound he made," said Matt, "It's like a banshee."

"Or your singing?" said Techo.

Matt glared and accidently solved the problem when he brought his fist down on Dirges head. "I DO NOT SING LIKE THAT!" he said, ignoring Dirge's complaining.

"You'll pay for that!" snapped Dirge, "That reward I get for turning in the ghost pilot better be worth as much as the trauma I've had here."

Matt hit him again. "Quiet, you..." he said.

That last hit was on the side of his cockpit and just happened to jostle the Allspark fragment out of place. Dirge immediately stopped and fell over, apparently in standby mode.

Matt looked down as a little shard fell out. He turned back and picked it up. "What the smeg's this?" he said.

Techo shrugged. "Looks valuable," he said.

Suddenly, Dirge's colors faded to grey and black. "Is he offline?" asked Techo.

"Looks like it," said Matt as he looked at the small crystal, "I think this thing was what was giving him life." Matt kicked Dirge before calling Chloe. "Hey, Chloe, we just caught a big problem...Chloe?" he said and held the comm away from his ear.

What was coming out of the comm was hardly repeatable in public, particularly with children around, but the censored version was, "Don't call me Chloe, you idiot!"

Matt gulped at those last words. "General?" he said in a small voice.

"That's right," said Silvia, "And as soon as I'm done with this walking bomber jet, you're next."

"Erm...would you like some advice...guess not," said Matt as Silvia cut him off.

Matt sighed to himself and said, "I'm not sure who's going to wreck the city more; Silvia or that other Decepticon she's apparently fighting. I better get over there before there's too much collateral damage."

--

Back at Sumdac Tower, Thrust was in a close combat fight with Silvia. "Gah...I'll turn you into spacedust for denting me!" he yelled as the yellow dragon circling around.

"Denting? That's the least you should worry about," snarled Silvia before trying to claw through Thrust's leg. Thrust tried to shoot Silvia only for the angry dragon to manage to bite through his leg joint.

Thrust winced in pain and said, "Release me at once, organic filth!" When Chloe only growled in reply, Thrust turned his energon flamethrowers on her at point blank range. Silvia roared and didn't just drop Thrust. She threw him at the ground at maximum speed. Following up with an explosive lightning ball.

That would have normally crippled any normal Transformer, but Thrust's armor was harder than the rest of his clone brethren. Not to mention he was now positively overflowing with rage now.

Silvia also decided to drop on him and a ton's worth of angry dragon definitely leaves a dent.

When Prowl arrived, he discovered that Silvia and Thrust's fight had devolved into a rather bloody brawl. "Chloe...get away from hi..." he began and had to dodge a lightning bolt. "Keep out of this, bot," snarled Silvia.

Prowl briefly considered using his processor-over-matter technique to communicate with Chloe's spark and calm her down. But then he remembered that as an organic, she had no spark. Silvia had no such restrictions, overriding the charges in several bots and sending them at Prowl.

Prowl had to drop out of the air before the lightning bolt hit him. As he landed on the ground, he heard a familiar siren and saw Optimus coming towards them in vehicle mode. Likewise, Matt was coming in from the air.

Matt landed, transforming to human as he did. "Hey, Chloe, haven't we got some finished business? No exploding space elevator to use as an excuse," he taunted.

Silvia snarled and charged at Matt, who deflected her tackle with a wall of plasma energy. "You take care of your sister," said Optimus as he transformed to robot mode, "We'll deal with the Starscream clone."

Matt nodded. "So, Silvia, anyone can win as a dragon...specially wusses like empire generals," he said. Silvia snarled and turned back. "Now I'll...what happened to my fur?" she said in shock.

"Right, bet things are blurry after Omnirus started sucking on your brain," said Matt tauntingly.

Silvia snarled and pulled out her ion blade. "I'll cut that smile right off your face," she said, running at Matt and was surprised as Matt span round her. "What the-" she started when Matt hit her on the wrist in such a way it caused her hand to reflexively drop her ion blade.

She aimed a punch, only for Matt to transform his hand to dragon form and grab her in an armlock. "It's nice to actually beat you, Silvia. You lose."

Just then, there was a flapping of wings and NegaMorph, Megan, and Gary landed nearby. "I got here as soon as I could," said NegaMorph. He looked around at the damaged buildings and shattered pavement. "Wow, you really made a mess here," he said.

"NegaMorph, that damn merc's here. Frag him," Silvia said, pointing at a grinning Matt.

NegaMorph actually looked guilty for a minute. "Sorry about this," he said, "Nothing personal." Then he quickly whipped out his Lockblade and poked Chloe in the chest with its tip.

Silvia managed a sad expression. "But..." she said before fainting.

NegaMorph looked really guilty about 'betraying' his first friend. Then Gary put a hand on his shoulder and said, "It was the right thing to do. She would have destroyed the rest of Detroit if she finished with Thrust."

Chloe got up unsteadily. "Ouch...bloody Silvia...I can hear her..." she said. The group looked over to see Thrust still fighting.

As ever, Thrust was still berserker mad. Optimus and Prowl were having a very hard time keeping him back. This wasn't helped by Thrust's blind determination to slag the two Autobots.

Matt remembered something. "Hey, that reminds me. There was a second one, had this in it," he said, pulling out the glowing shard.

"What is it?" asked Gary.

"I don't know, but its energy's are nothing like I've ever seen," said Megan.

"Whatever it is, I think that's what gave Dirge life," said Matt

"Dirge?" asked NegaMorph.

"That's what I called the one I fought. What do you call this guy?"

"Thrust," said Chloe.

"Hmm...why don't we just pull the plug on him?" suggested Matt.

"Ok then, you wanna reach in and pull a crystal out of that?" said Chloe, pointing at the raging Decepticon jet.

No...why don't we tell them though?" said NegaMorph.

Matt nodded and said, "Yo, Optimus, Prowl! There's some kind of blue crystal thing in this guy's cockpit! It's what's keeping him running!"

Optimus looked at the clone in shock. "Another clone...but Starscream's not around to activate them."

"Perhaps it was self-activating?" said Prowl as he ducked under one of Thrust's blows, "But Matt has a point. If we remove the Allspark chip, it should power him down."

Thrust yelled, "NOBODY TOUCHES MY SPARK!" before a burst from Ratchet's wrist magnets hit him in the back.

"What are you waiting for?" shouted Ratchet as he tried to keep Thrust from attacking, "Yank that chip out before he slags us!"

Prowl leapt onto Thrust and stuck his shurikens into Thrust, prizing the cockpit open. Thrust struggled to throw the ninja bot off, but the lid of the cockpit opened and Prowl reached in and pulled out the Allspark fragment.

Thrust yelled, "NOOOOoooo…" his voice getting lower until his color faded along with his voice.

Ratchet released his magnetic grip and the lifeless hulk fell over. "Ok, now what are we going to do with a pair of giant dead jet robots?" asked Megan.

"Blow em up?" said Matt nastily.

Optimus looked at Thrust's body and said, "I think we need to examine them. If there are more clones around than the ones that aided Starscream when he attacked Megatron's base, we'll need to know how to prepare for them."

Matt glared. "He tried to kill my crew and my sister," he said before making a plasma ball fly into the empty chest cavity

There was a dull boom, but Thrust's body didn't look damaged at all. "It appears that Decepticons are even harder than I thought," said Prowl, "Even in death."

Matt concentrated and glowing cracks began to appear in Thrust's chassis. Chloe put a hand on Matt's shoulder and said, "Matt, it's not worth it. It's just an inanimate husk now. There's not good beating a dead horse, or jet as the case may be."

"No..." said Matt and squeezed his fist. The chassis exploded out and the plasma inside shot into Matt's fist. With that he turned and walked off.

Seeing as there was nothing left, the group decided to head back to Sumdac Tower. As such, they didn't notice the blue stingray-like creature that flew off with the primary components of Thrust's processor.

--

Later, Matt was sitting in his room. A small holo-pic sat in front of him. Everyone thought it was a pic of the temporal marines...it wasn't. Matt pressed a button and the background appeared, showing a dozen or so mecha units, one for every person in the picture.

Then he heard a knock on his door. Matt quickly clicked the holo-pic off and said, "Come in."

Matt looked as the door opened and Prowl came inside. "This is about me nuking that Decepticon, right?" he said.

"Partially," said Prowl, "I somewhat understand that want to destroy what had tried to harm you. I may not look it, but I'm almost as old as Ratchet. No, I haven't actually fought in the Great War, but my mentor was slain by a Decepticon traitor. Even though he doesn't consider himself a Decepticon outright."

"So you guessed..." said Matt, turning the holo-picture on again. "What gave it away?"

"Your awkwardness around Ratchet and the way you disposed of Thrust's body," said Prowl, "I understand that you're not ready to reveal yourself to Ratchet, but the truth is inevitable. Of course, I don't think the ghost pilots are that bad."

"Sure, like you've personally met one," said Matt.

"As a matter of fact, I did," said Prowl, "His name was Vanis. He wasn't a human like you, said he was a Splitter. He was a good person. We split ways after a few days and I never saw him again. He said what happened on Janus IX."

Matt interrupted. "You can't tell the others...if anyone tells them...I will," he said, looking away, "The other clone's in storage...all yours."

Prowl nodded. "I understand. That is not a secret so easily revealed. Contrary to what you may think, we don't melt down our corpses for spare parts, at least not Autobots. But I think we may examine this Dirge to see if we can learn anything from him, such as the odd fear inducement his engines could generate."

"Good...you said Megatron was around. The reason the assassins stopped coming was because he 'died'. If the assassins know I'm around..." said Matt, his voice petering away.

--

Meanwhile, deep out in space, a starship was floating through the galaxy. At the helm was a rather odd-looking Transformer, who seemed to have limbs from different bots.

"Incoming transmission," chimed the computer. The Transformer walked to it and watched as a shadowy face appeared. "Mr. Lockdown, I have information regarding the ghost contract. I know where the last target is," said Mantichrome.

Lockdown looked interested. "Oh? And I suppose you have proof that what you're saying isn't just exhaust fumes," he said calmly.

Mantichrome pulled up a picture of the ghost unit. "Cross off the pictures," said Mantichrome, making the listed 'dead' pilots black out.

Lockdown looked at the last one; a black haired human, male, teenage years. "Sure, anyone can research history and eliminate possible survivors," he said coolly, "But if you don't have anything to point out where he is, you might as well hang up now."

"His wrist computer frequency is Delta -10D...and his registered ship is the NSS Bladestorm. Have fun and say goodbye from me," said Mantichrome and signed off.

Lockdown tapped in the frequency into his computer and it immediately locked onto a signal coming from Earth. "Hmm, could be interesting," said Lockdown, "Might as well check over there to be sure." He entered Earth's coordinates and started turning his ship around.

When the ship was heading towards Earth, Lockdown got up and walked out of the bridge. A few minutes later, he was in his storage bay. He passed by the numerous 'trophies' he had picked up from targets in the past and stopped in front of a wall that was shrouded in darkness. He pressed a light switch, causing the lights on the ceiling to illuminate several ghost mechs. "These things have been collecting dust in here long enough," said Lockdown, "It'll be so nice to get running if that kid's really there."

* * *

There's another chapter. As you can see Mantichrome's in town with his Monstercons, which will inevitably mean trouble for the gang, especially since Mantichrome just sent Lockdown to Earth. Of course, since Earth's a pretty fair distance away, he'll not show up for a few chapter. My co-author and I threw in the SUV mostly for stress, I mean, comedy relief. Dirge never appeared in the show, but he got a Legends class toy which depicted him as Starscream's greed. The fear-inducing engines were from the G1 Dirge. With Thrust, I took more liberties. He has the same color and vertical-takeoff engines as the G1 Thrust, but I didn't know if he had any special powers so I went with the energon flamethrowers. Anyways, the next chapter will certainly have some interesting developments so be sure to read it when it comes up, which should be hopefully soon. In the meantime, please review.


	3. Trouble Comes In Eights

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 3: Trouble Comes In Eights**

Matt was sitting in one of the rooms in Sumdac tower, skipping through the news. The spiderbots that were supposed to be servicing the mobile base were nowhere to be seen, but Matt had a good idea what they were up to.

Then he stopped on a news channel. A reporter bot was standing in front of an electronics store and was saying, "It has been utter confusion here as a group of small robots, dubbing themselves the 'Mythbusters Pirates' have been stealing various pieces of equipment. I have one with me right now." The camera shifted to show a spiderbot by the reporter bot. Matt went pale as Sari came in behind him.

"Those smegging jumped up, Mythbusters-obsessed tin cans!" he said angrily. The spiderbot on the TV didn't even wait for the reporter to start, jumping on his face and cutting his microphone off before shooting the bot.

"What kind of weird TV show is this?" said Sari, "Never heard any commercials about this."

"It's the evening news," said Matt in a small voice. "That...was a spiderbot. They're all purpose drones from my ship...and I can't get rid of them," he added in a miserable voice.

Sari watched the spiderbots scurry around with various pieces of equipment until one of them took an interest in the camera man and jumped at him. "Reminds me of my dad's pack bots," said Sari, "What would they want with all that stuff?"

"They have an obsession with the show, Mythbusters. They collect anything to do with them," said Matt, gloomily pulling out a cluster of gold credits. "Should cover the damages..." he said. There was a distant explosion and a piece of the sign from the shop in the news landed next to him. He added another coin.

"By the way, you know where Jumba is?" asked Sari, "My dad says that he said that he's doing something he's been to getting around doing."

"Oh...probably at HQ...Say...want a tour?" said Matt. There was another distant explosion and half a police drone landed next to the sign.

--

Meanwhile, out in deep space, a pair of robots was on the move. Or at least they would if they could decide where they were going to go.

"I hate all this wide open space..." gibbered one of the clones.

"Silence, you fool," said the other one, "We have a long journey to Cybertron if we want to get that upstart little Autobot that escaped us."

"No! Please! Not Cybertron!" said the purple clone, "The Autobots will get us!"

"STOP WHINING! You're hurting my brilliant audio receptors...what's that noise?" said the blue clone before flying slap bang into the side of a ship with a clang.

"Ah! A warship! Run for your life!" yelled the coward clone.

"Wait!" said the egomaniacal clone, "It's a Decepticon warship. The crew has obviously come here to make me their new captain. I am such an outstanding leader after all."

"But, what if it's a trap?" said the coward. The egotistic clone was about to reply when a hatch opened and a Decepticon peered out.

The tall purple Decepticon just stood there glowering for a minute. The purple clone decided to make a break for it when the Decepticon shifted into a jet form and flew in front of the fleeing clone before shifting back to robot mode. "Get inside," he said.

The coward screamed and flew into the ship. The other clone said, "Ah...my loyal crew jumps into ac...tion…" and stopped as the new Decepticon aimed at him.

"You too glitch."

The blue clone glared at the Decepticon and flew onboard. As soon as the two clones landed inside, a rough female voice called, "What have ve got here, Cyclonus?"

"Strika, I found two apparent Decepticons outside. Clones of that idiot Starscream, remember him?" said Cyclonus, pushing the two clones forward.

A large robot approached them. Large and bulky, one could only tell it was a femme by her voice, her 'lips' and vague body proportion. "All too vell," said Strika, "So Starscream's been fiddling with cloning, has he?"

The coward clone screamed in terror and tried to run back out the airlock, tripped by Cyclonus as he went by.

"Ah, this must be the ship of the famous Team Chaar," said the egotist clone, "Naturally such a high-caliber group belongs under the command of a bot of my magnitude."

Strika and Cyclonus looked at each other. "Take these two malfunctions to...the Doctor," she said.

The coward screamed again, "NOOOO!!! NOT THE DOCTOOOORRR!!!" Cyclonus simply grabbed the coward clone by the heels and stared dragging him away. The clone left deep scratches in the floor as he yelled, "No! Please! Anything but that! I have an irrational fear of doctors! All their tools and chemicals and the way they probe! It's too terrifying!"

The egotist clone held himself with more dignity. "You are obviously concerned that my superior inner mechanics may have been harmed during my long drift in space. Very well, I shall show you that I am perfectly fine," he said.

Strika said, "Not really, I just wonder vhy you are being such a vierdo."

The two clones were brought to a medical bay. "Scalpel, ve have two new patients for you," said Strika.

"Put zem on ze tables," said a small squeaky voice with a slight German accent.

The coward clone looked around. "Gah...HE'S INVISI..." and was cut off as Cyclonus hit him on the head.

The two clones were put on lab tables and strapped down. A few moments later, a tiny bot crawled up onto the table. He looked a lot like a spider, only his head was on a longer neck and he had only two eyes which stared at the clones through his tiny glasses.

The coward nearly went white. "SPIDERBOT!!!"

The Doctor looked at him. "Vat's his problem? I didn't even start yet."

"That's why ve brought them," said Strika, "They seem to have processor malfunctions. The other one has an ego problem."

"Ah...you recognize my superior intellect," said the ego clone.

"I am seeink vat you mean," said the Doctor.

Strika sighed. "Just find the problem and fix them. I'm getting a processor ache."

Scalpel snapped his fingers and a pair of diagnostic drones brought him a tray of tools. "Don't vorry," he said as he picked up a laser buzzsaw, "Zis won't hurt a bit."

The coward seemed to calm down. "Really?" he asked.

Scalpel shrugged. "Vell...I von't feel a thing," he said.

--

Back on Earth, Matt was showing Sari around the lab. He figured that even if she were an 8-year old in a body that looked twice that age, she couldn't possibly get into any trouble since she no longer had an Allspark-powered Key.

"First rule is never touch anything in Jumba's lab. He once installed a plasma reactor in a food mixer out of curiosity," said Matt.

"What happened with that?" asked Sari.

"Well...we're not exactly sure, but we found a 10 mile deep hole," said Matt.

"Heh, that's nothing," said Sari, "Once my dad was trying to test some appliance bots in an average kitchen. They turned into a warzone."

Matt grinned. "Cool, brings a whole new meaning to the words' food fight'...uh oh...don't...move..." he said, his grin vanishing. A spiderbot was on an alcove beside her, looking in curiosity.

"They don't attack, do they?" asked Sari.

"Worse, they prank," whispered Matt.

The spiderbot looked at Sari before making a little smiley face appear on its optic and jumping into her arms. Matt glared at it. "Don't be fooled...THEY'RE EVIL!!!" he said.

The spiderbot scuttled up her arm and perched on Sari's shoulder. "I don't know," said Sari, "They're kinda cute."

Matt glared. "Did I mention they're sneaky?" he said and jumped as the spiderbot sniggered at him.

"I think you're overreacting," said Sari.

"You wish I was overreacting," said Matt.

The spiderbot pulled a face at him before scuttling off Sari and into the vents.

"Right, let's see Jumba now," said Matt, "At least he can control his craziness."

Matt opened the door to Jumba's lab and went flying as a plasma blast hit him. Sari was surprised when Matt's body simply absorbed the blast like a sponge. However, the baseball cap he had been wearing wasn't so lucky. Matt stared at it. "I got this at Houston...JUMBA! YOU OWE ME A NASA HAT!!!" he said, walking in angrily.

"Sorry," said Jumba, "I think arachnoid bots have stolen 'knock before entering' sign."

"What the hell are they doing with that stuff? I saw the boat they made and I swear its chassis reminded me of Leafstripper," muttered Matt before looking at Sari. "Sari Sumdac? Meet Dr. Jumba Jookiba, professional evil genius."

"A pleasure to be meeting you, cyborg girl," said Jumba, "Your father talks about you often. Now if you don't mind, am busy with evil genius work."

"It's not another microwave, is it? We still can't use deck 13," said Matt suspiciously.

"Is nothing like that," said Jumba, "Just upgrading X-Buggy to better level."

"You're putting blasters on Lilo's buggy?" Matt said in a level tone.

"Not just blasters," said Jumba, "Am installing nanotech windshield to avoid paying for cracks and enhancing flight suspension."

"It can fly?" said Matt in an annoyed voice. He then remembered something. "You didn't install anything from the restricted materials locker...did you?"

"No, have been working with technology from Sumdac Systems," said Jumba, "Also managed to expand chassis for extra seats. Want to see?"

Matt seemed to calm down. "Well...ok...but keep out that locker," he said. He turned to Sari. "Wanna see a Starfury?"

When Jumba walked out of the lab to get a quick bite to eat, Morph wandered in. He spotted the X-Buggy immediately. It looked somewhat like before, only it was now longer because it now had four seats and it had silver decal on it.

"Cool..." he said, jumping into the driver's seat. Morph grabbed the wheel and said, "PlasMorph's taking the lead. He's pulling ahead of the others. He's heading for the finish line!" Suddenly, his hand accidently hit the ignition button and the X-Buggy started up. "Uh-oh," he said before it flew through the air.

Matt was showing Sari the resident fighters when the roof of the lab area was knocked off to allow the X-Buggy mk 2 fly overhead with a screaming Morph at the controls. "MORPH! Jumba, you forgot the Morph factor in your design! After that...dune buggy," he said finishing in a dull voice as he realized how lame it was.

Fortunately, Sari had brought her moped/jetpack and was able to fly after the X-Buggy. Lilo and Stitch also spotted the wayward vehicle and wearing hanging onto to Sari's back. Matt had to carry Jumba in his dragon form, not an easy task.

"You need...a diet...Jumba," said Matt, flying after the others.

"You are sounding like Pleakley," said Jumba, "Alvays complaining about extra veight."

"When a dragon can't carry you..." glared Matt.

The X-Buggy was flying wildly through the skies, Morph obviously having no idea how to fly it. It flew over downtown and started getting dangerously close to the buildings. Matt roared. "MORPH...YOU LAND THAT RIGHT NOW!" before panting and adding in the privacy of his mind, "...before Jumba squishes me..."

Whether it was because Matt told him to or because of complete accident (most likely the latter), the X-Buggy started flying straight down towards the back of an orange garbage truck.

Matt sighed. "That's it, we have the spiderbots guard him at all times," he said, landing on the street and letting Jumba down.

The buggy crashed into the garbage bin, causing garbage to fly everywhere. Morph stumbled out of the buggy, looking dazed. The buggy's front was badly dented, but surprisingly, the garbage truck didn't even look scratched.

Matt used plasma control to hover Morph in front of him. "You...nit, this has to be a record," he snarled.

Morph gulped and said, "Uh, don't worry, that'll buff right out."

Suddenly, a voice said, "Worry not, citizens. I am perfectly alright."

Matt stopped and turned his head slowly. "Who said that?" he said slowly

"I did." Suddenly, the garbage truck transformed into a large orange robot. "Wreck-Gar!" said Morph happily.

"PlasMorph!" replied the robot with the same level of happiness.

"Who the hell is that?" said Matt, turning back.

"That's Wreck-Gar." said Sari in a gloomy voice.

"I am Wreck-Gar," said the robot, "I am a hero!"

"Hey Wreck-Gar," said PlasMorph, "This is Lilo, Stitch, Matt, and Jumba. Stitch is my cousin, Lilo's our friend, Jumba's the one who invented me, Matt's the crazy guy."

"Greetings alien life," said Wreck-Gar and then made odd hand gestures while saying, "Bah-weep-Graaaaagnah wheep ni ni bong."

Matt sighed. "Oh man...two idiots for the price of one," he said in a tired voice.

"Uh, where did you meet this guy?" asked Lilo.

"We met at the SMID convention," said Morph.

"So that's where he disappeared to for a week," said Sari.

Matt sighed again. "Great...now, how are we gonna fix the buggy? We can't even call in a shuttle without alarming everyone in the city," he said.

Wreck-Gar looked at the wrecked buggy and said, "What it needs is a good hood ornament." He dug into his backpack and pulled out various pieces of junk. "Ooh, this'll do," he said, pulling out a glowing blue crystal.

Matt and Sari both stared at it and ran forward as Wreck-Gar stabbed it into the buggy's hood. "NO, WAIT!" yelled Sari and she and Matt were knocked over from the shockwave as the 'hood ornament' melted into the buggy.

As the buggy became covered in blue light, the damage it suffered from the crash fixed itself. Dents smoothed out while the headlights pieced themselves back together. But when the light faded, it started moving in a way it definitely couldn't have before. The seats and the sides of the car unfolded out to become arms, with the backs of the seats folding along the forearm and the actual seats forming the palms. Then the front of the car at each wheel unfolded to form legs. The inner part of the lower leg flipped around to form two-toed feet around the wheels. The hooded flipped upwards to form the lower torso. The back of the buck flipped forward and the rail flipped down to form the upper torso. Then the back wheels flipped out onto projections that hung away from the body. Then the head, which had four yellow eyes, black marks on the center of his face and chin, and a structure that resembled a sunhat, flipped up. The newly formed Transformers turned to the others and said in a distinctly Jamaican accent, "What's up, bros?"

Everyone stared. "Ok...does this happen often?" said Matt, weakly.

"Well, not so often now," said Sari, "There's only like 8 Transformers formed on Earth, including Wreck-Gar."

Matt turned on Wreck-Gar, ready to deal out pure pain when he realized there was no point. "Meh, it's not worth it. Lilo? Like the new buggy?"

Lilo said, "Erm...he left." Matt turned to see an immediate lack of transformed dune buggy.

"Uh, where did he go?" asked Sari.

"Is fortunate I remembered to install tracking chip," said Jumba, who was strangely unperturbed that the car that he had been working had come to life.

Matt sighed and picked up a piece of the buggy that had been knocked off when Morph had crashed. "You mean this?" he said.

Jumba glanced at and said, "Yes, that's it." He realized the implications and said, "Oh blitznak."

"Ok, let's not panic," said Lilo, "If we can find experiments, we can find him. He ought to stand out more than an experiment anyways."

Matt looked at Lilo in horror. "You just jinxed us," he said in horror.

"Guys, he just came to life," said Sari, "I don't think he'll want to do any harm now. Come to think of it, what would he want?"

"Ok, I'm a newly humanized dune buggy. I've got a whole city to play in. Where would I go?" said Matt.

They all thought for a minute, though Morph and Wreck-Gar's thinking probably weren't that deep. Then Jumba said matter-of-factually, "Auto-furnishings."

Matt looked at Jumba and said, "Say what?" He shrugged, "Meh...you have a habit of being right anyhow."

--

Scalpel lowered the hatch down on the coward clone's arm. "Zere...zat vasn't so bad...vas it?" he said, scuttling back

The purple clone was just gibbering in terror, having been through the most excruciating experience in his entire life. "How dare you violate my privacy!" shouted the blue clone, "A mere medic drone like you does not deserve to touch my inner workings!"

"Oh please be shuttink up, othervise I vill have to remove your audio unit," said Scalpel.

"So? They are Starscream clones, right?" said Strika, who had turned off her audio receptors during the examination.

"Indeed, madam. However zeir internal systems appear to be subtly different, mostly offensive systems," said Scalpel

"So, they may have different veaponry," said Strika thoughtfully.

"Zat ze might," agreed Scalpel.

Strika turned to Cyclonus and said, "Take these two to the training area. Let's see vat they can do."

The coward snapped out of it. "NOOOOO...I dent easily."

The egomaniac however took it in stride. "Excellent," he said, "A chance to prove my awesome fighting powers and show how I'm so much more superior."

Strike muttered to Cyclonus "Load live ammo ven it is his turn."

--

The cowardly clone was pushed into the training area first. Of course, it required both Strika and Cylconus to get him through the door.

"You vill do the training or go back to the doctor...your choice!" yelled Strika.

The purple coward said nothing, but stood quaking in the middle of the training room.

About 10 guns activated. Strika turned. "The ammo isn't loaded.

Cyclonus shrugged. "I know..."

"No! Please! Have mercy!" said the clone, "I'll tell you anything you want! Just don't hurt me!" The guns all pointed at him and started to warm up. The clone screamed loudly and suddenly disappeared in a flash of light.

Strika and Cyclonus's mouths fell open. "Ok...what happened there?" said Cyclonus.

Suddenly, the coward clone reappeared on the other side of the training area with another flash of light. "Did...did I do that?" he asked.

Strika and Cyclonus looked at each other and grinned.

A minute later, the gagged egomaniac clone was pushed in, Cyclonus pulling the gag off before quickly shutting and soundproofing the door.

The blue egomaniac stepped forward and said, "This shall be an easy matter to show how worthy I am of being commander."

"Oh, please let him get knocked offline," said Strika. The egomaniac had been driving her to the end of her hard drive.

The guns started blasting at the clone. It flew around the blasts and started returning fire. But then the guns surrounded him on all side. "It would appear I need a better trick to deal with this petty offense," said the egotist clone. Suddenly, he curled into a ball before flexing and letting out a loud sonicboom that knocked all the guns offline.

Strika knew she should be pleased that he had survived, but somehow she couldn't bring herself to be happy.

--

Afterwards, the two clones were brought to the bridge. Oil Slick, Blackout, and Spittor were all standing at attention while Strika read the clones' battle data. "Apparently, the purple one has the ability to teleport while the blue one can create sonicbooms," she said, "Therefore, you shall be addressed as Skyvarp and Thundercracker."

"Does this mean we have to fight?" gibbered the newly christened Skywarp

"Perhaps," said Strika, "Though you look like you'd be better off as a diversion. However, since you are Starscream's clones, you must know vat happened with Megatron's plan and vy he called off the attack."

"No, we don't know," gibbered Skywarp.

Thundercracker said, "He failed to rely on my brilliance...OW!" and was cut off as Cyclonus slapped him around the back of the head.

"You are spawns of the traitor Starscream," said Strika, "You vere obviously built to help him dethrone Megatron. So now you're going to tell me vere Megatron is or I vill launch the two of you into a quasar!"

"But we don't know! The last we saw, Megatron was fighting, then some Autobot knocked us through a space bridge. I think the planet was called...Earth...full of scary organics," said Skywarp.

"Autobots? On Earth?" said Oil Slick.

"Yes, a ragtag group led by a lowly bot named Optimus Prime," said Thundercracker, "I would have dealt with them, but an inferior construction bot bound me with his vile glue."

Strika said, "Ve shall head to Earth. Megatron may be in need of reinforcements."

--

On Earth, Matt, Sari, Lilo, Stitch, and Jumba were all looking for their former dune buggy. They had convinced Morph and Wreck-Gar to not help, saying there are probably people who need their help more.

"This is mad, even by my usual standards," sighed Matt, gloomily.

"Yeah, normally when you're looking for a car, it's because it's been stolen, not because it ran away," said Lilo.

Matt sighed. "True, usually Stitch is driving it," he said.

Sari stopped them. "Hey, let's try in that shop. Bumblebee went there once when Lockdown first came to Detroit."

As they were approaching the shop, the X-Buggy suddenly drove out from it. "Hey guys," it said before transforming to robot mode, "Check out these wicked purchases, ocean breeze air freshener, turbo turtle wax, I even found a bouncing hula dancer knickknack."

Matt sighed. "Ok...buggy person. Hands in the air, please," he said, walking forward.

The buggy bot turned to Matt and said, "Hey Matt, how's it hanging?"

Matt stared at it. "Fine...now come back to base with us," he said, jerking a thumb over his shoulder.

"What? Already? But I barely got ta see anyt'ing of dis city," said the buggy bot.

"Tough cheese, move it, buggy," said Matt, his patience evaporating.

"Give him a break, Matt," said Sari, "After all, he did just came to life."

Matt sighed. "Ok...so what do we do with him?" he said, gloomily.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of a police siren and they turned to see Prowl approaching in vehicle mode. "I heard about your vehicle going out of control," said Prowl as he transformed, "Perhaps I can help find-" He stopped when he saw the buggy bot, "Hmm, this is more complicated."

"Awesome," said the buggy bot, "Another vehicle/robot guy. Give me five!" He held up his hand for a high five. Prowl, uncertainly, put his hand up and the buggy bot slapped his hand against it. "Say Lilo," said the buggy bot, "Ain't ya gonna name me now? Ya named all the little cousins, don't I get a name too?"

Lilo looked thoughtful. "How about...Beachcomber?" she said.

Prowl shook his head and said, "I know a bot back on Cybertron by that name."

"Ok then," said Lilo, "Is...Dune Runner available?"

Prowl thought for a minute and said, "I never met a bot by that name."

"Ok then," said Lilo to the buggy bot, "From now on, you'll be called Dune Runner."

'Dune Runner' nodded his head and said, "Dune Runner, righteous."

Matt sighed and said to Sari, "At this rate, there won't be any room for me aboard my ship."

"Wait a minute," said Lilo, "How did you know about me?"

"Oh I remember everyt'ing from when I was just a dune buggy," said Dune Runner, "It was kinda weird since I couldn't react in any way to anything, physically, emotionally, or mentally. So I remember all of you. Except her." He pointed at Sari, "I don't remember ever meeting her before."

"That's because you haven't," said Matt in a bored voice.

Just then, they heard a truck honking. They looked to see Wreck-Gar driving towards them in vehicle mode. Morph hopped out of his cab before Wreck-Gar transformed. "Oh goody, you found the buggy," said Morph.

"Oh no," said Matt.

"Greetings, new friend," said Wreck-Gar to Dune Runner, "Allow me to celebrate your arrival with a song." He pulled a giant mandolin out of his backpack and started playing, "La, la, la, la-la..."

Suddenly, Stitch grabbed the mandolin and started smashing it on the ground, yelling, "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" He paused and handed the even more trashed mandolin back to Wreck-Gar and said, "Sorry, don't know what came over me."

Matt patted Stitch. "Natural reaction to bad singing, I've never been happier to be tone deaf," he said happily.

"Uh, hey Morph," said Lilo, "This is our buggy, only his name's Dune Runner now." "Hey Morph," said Dune Runner, "How's it shakin'?"

Morph nodded. "Nothing yet, Jumba's still fixing the food mixer."

"Ok, ok," said Matt, "Can we get the Baha Bot back to the ship before things get even crazier?"

--

As Matt was saying this a certain ship had just come out of transwarp behind the moon. As soon as it did, its proximity alarms began wailing. The reason was innocently sitting above the South Pole.

"Spittor, vat's going on?" demanded Strika, who had to shout over both the alarms and Skywarp's cries of 'Abandon ship!'

"The Autobot-damned NSC, one of their destroyers is sitting in orbit," said Spittor, pointing at the view port.

"The NSC? If that's a joke, you had better hope it's vorth getting blasted over," said Strika.

All of a sudden a trio of missiles shot into view and hit the wing of the ship. The shock knocked them out of the moon's shadow and into view of their shooter. A ship emblazoned with the NSC symbol was aiming, firing again.

Strika rubbed her forehead and said, "This is so not my lucky day."

A second hail of fire blew one of the engines clean off, sending them spiraling earth-wards. Skywarp shrieked, "Femme-bots and clones first!" and had to be jumped on to stop him jumping out the airlock.

"Blackout, get outside and try to catch the ship," ordered Strika.

"With what? NSC ships have EMP shielding, plus the clone's stuck in the airlock," said Blackout, pointing to where Skywarp was refusing to let go of the airlock's door frame.

Strika smacked Blackout on the shoulder, which was as high as she could reach. "Rip him out of the vay and catch our ship!" she shouted.

Spittor however wasn't joining in the argument, instead working on pulling the ship out of its spiral. He managed to level off, only to crash into a mountain slope.

As soon as Team Chaar was back on their feet, Strika turned to Spittor and said, "How did you do that?"

Spittor shrugged and said, "Doing that combat training on the monitor pays off sometimes. Can we take a lunch break now?"

Strika glared at them. "NYET! You layabouts vill fix the ship before a ghost unit turns up!!!" she yelled.

"Hmm, we probably ought to do some recon too," said Oil Slick.

"Then you can do it, gas bot," said Strika. She turned to Blackout and said, "And you, Mr. Slowpoke, you're going out too."

"But the ghosts..." began Oil Slick

Strika yelled, "ARE YOU DECEPTICONS OR...him?" she finished lamely pointing at Skywarp.

Oil Slick grumbled and said, "C'mon, Blackout. Might as well see if there are any useful chemicals on this planet."

The two Decepticons got a good look at the ruined ship. "Stupid NSC," muttered Oil Slick. They stopped when they realized they'd wandered into a road. A tanker was driving towards them. The driver took one look and jumped out, running away screaming.

"Hmm, it appears our kind is an extremely unusual type on this planet," said Oil Slick, "We better stay in vehicle mode."

"Ok," said Blackout and transformed to his gunship mode before flying off. Then Oil Slick became his Cybertronian motorcycle mode and drove off.

--

The afternoon was dragging by slowly at the West Michigan Military Training Facility. The soldiers have been training drills all morning and it was another hour before flight practice.

A private knocked nervously on Colonel O'Hanson's office. "Sir? We got a UFO headed for the base," he said once he had been allowed in.

"Let me guess, a flying saucer's coming in to buzz us?" said Colonel O'Hanson, who was not a big fan of sci-fi.

"No sir, it's definitely not a saucer," said the Private.

O'Hanson decided to play along. If the men wanted to pretend they were going to be invaded, he'll scramble just to make sure they're reading for a real invasion. "So, have we got any visuals of this 'alien spacecraft'?" he said jokingly.

The private punched up a camera drone's view. "There it is, sir," he said.

O'Hanson's grin promptly vanished when he saw the large alien gunship flying towards the base. "Well don't just stand there," he said, "Get the anti-aircraft weapons ready. Don't know if it'll work on this thing, but we're not letting it takes down that easily."

The soldiers ran around, turning on the automated AA guns as the gunship came into view. The soldiers opened fire on the ship as soon as it came into view. The ship didn't seem bothered by the assault, but it aimed its weapons and started firing energy beams. The soldiers scattered in panic to avoid being blown to pieces as the gunship blew each AA gun up systematically.

They were heading for the choppers and tanks when the gunship hovered to the center of the base. Suddenly, its part shifted around to become a large robot. It landed on the ground, causing a large EMP blast to come out of its feet. The troopers already in their vehicles were horrified as their machines shut down. The troopers on the ground got a good look as every piece of hardware deactivated.

Ignoring the soldiers' distress, Blackout activated his comlink. "Blackout to Oil Slick," he said, "I've eliminated a local military base, but they seemed to have seen through my disguise."

"You glitch head. Of course they saw through it. Didn't you scan an earth form?" was Oil Slick's reply.

Blackout stopped and looked around slowly. "Erm...of course I did," he lied.

"Then you must have gotten it wrong," snapped Oil Slick, "Get a proper vehicle mode and get moving. Don't destroy the base, but disable their communications. We don't want to attract too much attention. Yet."

"Fine," said Blackout, looking around for a good disguise. Blackout looked around for a suitable vehicle to scan. He ignored the tanks as he still wanted to be able to fly undetected. Then he spotted a very large military chopper. "Hmm...that will do," he said and the Decepticon insignia on his chest flashed as a cube of purple light appeared over the helicopter.

O'hanson and the private peered out from cover as Blackout flew away. "So...what do we say on the report sir?" said the Private.

O'Hanson's eyes twitched. "Nothing...was a weather balloon...an, erm...exploding one," he said.

--

Meanwhile, Oil Slick was searching for a vehicle to scan of his own. He was aware that vehicles such as his don't normally had treads instead of wheels. Not to mention a rider is expected to be seen one when it's in motion.

He was about to give up when he saw a building at the next corner. The sign said 'Roadside Tavern' and he saw lots of two wheel vehicles lined up outside.

Intrigued, Oil Slick stopped in the parking lot and transformed to robot mode. He made certain not to be seen by the people inside, but he could clearly hear the rowdy music and boisterous hollering of the people inside. He peered through a window and saw lots of people drinking what seemed from sensors to be fermented plant juices. Something nasty from the readings and, judging from some behavior, extremely back for processors.

But then Oil Slick got back to what was really important; the motorcycles. He walked down the line of side-to-side choppers until he spotted one that he liked very much. It was a low-riding motorcycle that two wheels in the back like a tricycle, but in the front, it had another two wheels close together. This chopper was practically an Earth version of his vehicle mode. It even had a ram's skull-like decoration in front of the handlebars that wasn't that dissimilar to the robotic head that was on his motorcycle mode in the same spot. "Hmm, I'll have to place my barrels next to the rear tires," said Oil Slick, "But other than that, I don't think I'll have to alter my transformation pattern one bit."

He was interrupted when a biker staggered out, took one look at him and peered suspiciously at the can of beer he was holding before throwing it away and staggering back inside.

"Hmm, apparently that formula causes them to hallucinate as well as addle their processors," said Oil Slick, "Interesting. However, I think I should get a rider hologram to avoid more suspicion."

Oil Slick peered into the window again to see the same guy that had come outside trying to explain what he had seen and being laughed at. He noticed that alot of the drinkers were wearing some kind of helmet before spotting one bragging about his 'hog'.

Oil Slick quickly scanned the looks of several of the bikers before creating an image of his own biker. It was somewhat similar to him in proportions, with the blue jeans, leather jacket, and chains this model of human seem to typically wear. He also included a motorcycle helmet that had a gasmask-like nozzle at the where the chin would be. He then turned and scanned the bike he'd seen before transforming and driving off.

--

As soon as the gang got back to the base camp, Prowl summoned the other Autobots to see Dune Runner.

"I blame Morph for this..." muttered Matt to himself as Dune Runner was examined by Ratchet.

"Well, as far as I can tell," said Ratchet, "He's a well-tuned Cybertronian. Of course, I'm not that familiar with this hovering technology."

Matt shrugged. "Hell if I know how he got it. He did have some of Jumba's add-ons. He does hover tech," he said.

"Course I can hover, mon," said Dune Runner, "Check dis out." He reached up and unattached the extensions his back tires were on. As he placed it on the ground, it straightened and lengthened until it was a surfboard-like hoverboard.

Matt muttered something about a 'showoff'.

"So who wants ta do some snowboardin'?" asked Dune Runner.

"Well, at least he's got a better personality than the last three vehicles some Allspark fragments brought to life," said Bumblebee, which earned him an annoyed glare from Bulkhead.

Matt sighed. "So what happens now?" he said in a tired voice.

"Well," said Optimus, "We'd be glad to have him on the Autobot team."

Dune Runner looked at Optimus for a moment before saying, "No t'anks."

The group all looked surprised at this.

"Um, excuse me?" said Optimus.

"Don't get me wrong. I respect what ya Autobots do. But it's just not me style," said Dune Runner, "I'd rather just hang out doing what I do."

Matt looked at Dune Runner. "And where would you like to hang out?" he said, getting a good feeling what the answer would be.

"Well, I'm planning on heading back to Kauai with de rest of ya," said Dune Runner, "But in de meantime, how about we catch some waves?"

"Erm, we're in Michigan...and it's January...no waves here," said Matt, pointing to the weather outside.

Dune Runner looked outside and said, "Hey, is dat a helicopter?"

The group looked around to see a gunship. "Is that a Scythe attack gunship?" said Matt.

"Hmm, perhaps a Decepticon's been spotted," said Optimus.

"Better go out and check," said Ratchet, "We don't want the Cons to get the drop on us."

The group wandered out of the factory and Matt's comm beeped. It was WARDEN. "Sir, I wish to report a Decepticon cruiser entered our sector a few minutes ago. I am happy to report I neutralized it," the A.I said.

"Oh, that's good," said Matt.

"Wait," said Chloe, "When you neutralized it, did you just shoot it down or did it blow up?"

"Its main jump drive was disabled. Sadly, the Bladestorm has no EMP disruption missiles aboard.

NegaMorph sold them last month so survivors are likely. Should I inform NSC command?" said the A.I

Matt gave Chloe an annoyed look and said, "You wouldn't happen to know what inspired him to do that, would you?"

"Erm...let's talk later," said Chloe.

"Sir, my scanners have just pinpointed a target 300 feet above your position," said WARDEN. Chloe and Matt's faces slowly looked up.

"Hmm...it wouldn't look like a gunship...would it?" Matt said in a tiny voice.

Just then, the chopper came down and landed in front of them. The group watched the rotors on top slowly spin to a top before they suddenly slid backwards to face the back. "Um, is that normal for helicopters?" asked Lilo.

Suddenly, the rest of the copter shifted and changed until it became a 50-foot robot. "That's not!" yelled Chloe.

Matt gulped. "I concur..." he said as the new bot revealed a Decepticon symbol.

The Decepticon glared down at them and growled, "Autobots. NSC." It lifted up its foot and the smaller members ran out of the way as it stomped down and released a large shockwave.

Matt got up and fired a stream of plasma into the Decepticon's foot. "Hot foot," he taunted, softening the armor he had hit.

"I better call for backup," said Chloe as she pulled out her communicator. She pressed a couple buttons, but the communicator wouldn't turn on. "The hell? I made sure this thing was fully charged," she said.

Matt tried his own. "EMP...bloody tin can, least our blades work," he said, pulling his ion blade out.

Chloe glared. "Oh, yeah, that'll work sooo well," she said sarcastically.

Then the Decepticon activated his comlink. "Blackout to Strika, Autobots found. The NSC are here, but I disabled their weapons."

"Excellent," said Strika, "Send coordinates. Ve vill be there momentarily."

Matt glared and shook his comm. "I hope WARDEN decided to do something on his own. WHERE ARE THE DAMN SPIDERBOTS WHEN YOU NEED THEM?" he yelled.

--

Back at Team Chaar's ship, the Decepticons were getting mobilized. "Cyclonus," said Strika, "Take the new recruits and fly to vere Blackout is. Oil Slick's already on his vay. Spittor and myself vill be right behind you."

"Ok, anyone seen that loudmouth Thundercracker?" said Cyclonus.

--

The aforementioned clone was not far, standing at the river that fed Lake Eire. His audience would have been familiar to the crew and were only not attacking cause they could not believe someone was so stupid as to try to command them without a bribe.

"As you can clearly see, you're no match for my majestic powers," said Thundercracker, "So now..." He paused and looked at his reflection in the river, "Hmm, I do make a handsome bot." He turned back to his 'audience' and continued, "So now if you surrender, I shall give you the honor of being my personal footservants."

One of the spiderbots glared at him and came to a agreement. Nobody should be allowed to talk like that to them. The hatches on the top of them all opened up and seemingly tiny lasers folded out and aimed. Cyclonus wandered into view, looking for Thundercracker and spotted the bots. "Oh spark. Thundercracker...step away slowly..." he said calmly. One of the spiderbots looked at him too.

"You do not think such puny vermin could pose a threat to my superior body," said Thundercracker.

"Erm...you didn't mean that," said Cyclonus as the spiderbots' optics all glowed blood red. They were a bit annoyed.

"Please, they're just inferior insects," said Thundercracker, "Observe." He lifted his foot and brought down on the spiderbots.

He lifted his foot to see the spiderbot, sunk into the earth but perfectly intact. It looked at him and said "Byeeee." in a high pitched voice before all the spiderbots started shooting randomly at them.

"Hey! Ow! Ow! Stop stinging me, you worthless pests!" shouted Thundercracker.

One of the spiderbots said 'Ok' and fired a full power blast that luckily missed, but did create a pretty big explosion.

Cyclonus grabbed Thundercracker by the wing and pulled him out of range. "You are a rank amateur!" he yelled.

The spiderbots, happy that the calculator-brain would not bad mouth them again, scuttled away, laughing insanely.

Cyclonus glared at the clone. "You...idiot...we have orders. Transform and rise up before I throw you back to those...pests," he said

"Hmph. Those Autobots would make far better targets anyways," said Thundercracker before switching to jet mode and taking off. Cyclonus rubbed his forehead and said, "This is why I don't care for other bots." Then he shifted to his jet mode and took off.

Meanwhile, Blackout was still causing mayhem. "This is annoying," said Matt, dodging another stamp and stabbing with his blade, followed up with a plasma blast into the hole.

That just made Blackout switch to his guns, which were still powerful even with his Earth body.

Matt raised a plasma shield and was sent flying from the impact. Chloe sent a lightning bolt into one of the guns, trying to short out its targeting systems.

Of course, the Autobots were helping out too. Bumblebee tried to zap him with his stingers, but Blackout just picked him up and threw him into Prowl. Bulkhead, the only Autobot comes even close to him in side, was trying to push him over, but Blackout was just ignoring him.

Matt got up, eyes spinning and focused on several new objects. "Oh no...HEADS UP!" he yelled as the new units opened fire. He also saw the two clones. "Not these guys again," he said.

"Nope," said Bumblebee, "Those are the Starscream clones Blurr got sent away with."

"And how is that an improvement?" said Matt, deflecting a blast with a shield.

"Oh, the purple one's a chicken and the blue one brags too much to do any actual fighting," said Bumblebee as he shot at the third jet that was of a different design from the other two.

"Hmm..." said Matt with an evil grin before sneaking towards the purple one as it landed and transformed. "BOOGY BOOGY!" he yelled at it.

Skywarp screamed and jumped into Blackout's arms. "Save me!" he yelled. Blackout looked at the clone with confusion before tossing him over his shoulder. This gave Bulkhead the opening to land a hit with his mace, right on the top of Blackout's head.

Matt had managed to get over to Skywarp. "Now where were we?" he said and treasured the reaction.

Skywarp stood back up and said in a shaky voice, "I'm n-n-not afraid of you."

"Ok, how about now?" said Matt before changing to dragon form. Skywarp just moaned before fainting from fright. Matt changed back and walked up to Skywarp, poking him. "Ok...didn't expect that," he said.

--

Chloe however was fighting Thundercracker in her dragon form and had found out the clone's 'weakness' the hard way. "Don't you ever shut up?" she snarled.

"Ha, you should feel grateful for getting to hear my majestic voice," said Thundercracker, "Though I can't expect a mere reptile to understand such high art."

Chloe's eyes blazed and she blasted him back into and through a building. "I'm gonna tear your audio speakers out and choke you with them!" she shrieked.

Thundercracker blasted back at her and said, "A female should know her place, even if it's an organic."

Chloe rolled round the blast and bit the end of Thundercracker's blaster off. "Now stay still so I can do the same to your head," she said, spitting it out.

"How dare you damage my magnificent weapon!" shouted Thundercracker.

"Like this," snarled Chloe, bringing both her paws round to hit either side of the clone's head, only for a blast from Cyclonus to knock her down a second later.

Just then, Matt noticed a lowriding motorcycle approaching. "Hey buddy," he said, "This is no place for a-" He stopped when the motorcycle's driver disappeared and the bike itself transformed into another Decepticon. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he said.

He brought his blade up at what for the newcomer was ankle height as Oil Slick went by, catching the Decepticon on the side of his foot. The Decepticon winced as the blade left a cut in his leg. "Bad move," he said before tossing a canister at Matt.

Matt was confused and then totally wasted as the hallucinogen gas went to work. Then to everyone's horror, Matt started to sing, "On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball, when somebody-"

Then Oil Slick gave him a kick with his other foot that sent Matt flying into the river. "That takes care of him," he said.

Ratchet had just shaken the sore feeling from his processor when he saw Oil Slick. "YOU!" he said.

Oil Slick looked at Ratchet and said, "Well, well, if it isn't that old medibot that helped me out with my Cosmic Rust experiment. I would have thought they'd scrapped an outdated model like you."

Ratchet scowled at Oil Slick and said, "What are you doing on Earth?" "Well, it was my decision personally," said Oil Slick, "But I can't really argue with Strika, can I? So, is it true Lockdown knocked that piece off your head or is it a memento from our last encounter?"

Oil Slick smirked as Ratchet glared. "Did I touch a circuit there?" he said, cockily.

Ratchet extended his magnets and said, "I think it's time you left before you cause any more damage."

Oil Slick smirked. "Hmm...I don't think so," he said, pulling out one of his rust bombs. He threw it at Ratchet, but Ratchet caught it with his magnetism. Instead of tossing it back, he set it down out of the way. "Heh, some warrior you are," said Oil Slick, "Don't have the guts to use the deadly stuff on your enemies."

"I've told you before," said Ratchet, "I am not a warrior, I'm a medic."

Ratchet had to lean back as Oil Slick suddenly sent his chain out in a nasty slashing that, if it had connected, could have done serious injury.

Optimus knocked his opponent back in time to see two more Decepticons closing in vehicle mode. As quickly as they appeared, the six-wheeled battle tank and the two-legged walker suddenly transformed to robot mode. "Wait a minute," said Optimus, "I recognize this group from the Cybertron history files. We're fighting Team Chaar!"

"Team Chaar?!" said Bumblebee, "As in Megatron's elite brute team?!"

Chloe punched Thundercracker into a building before turning in the air. "Great...as if we didn't have enough worries," she said.

Suddenly, Stitch ran forward and tackled Strika's shin. Strika was surprised to be buffeted back by the attack. "Insolent creature," she said, "Get off of me!" She swatted Stitch off with one swipe of her servo, causing him to fly through the air and land in the snow.

Lilo ran over to Stitch and tried to pull him out the drift he'd landed in when she looked up to see Strika's foot heading for her.

Suddenly, several plasma blasts hit Strika, forcing her to stagger backwards. Lilo looked back, expecting to see Matt. But instead, she saw Dune Runner, holding large guns similar to Stitch's blasters in each hand and, for once, a serious expression on his face. "Ya leave dat little girl alone," he said, "She got not'ing ta do with dis."

Strika turned in annoyance. "Vat in the Allspark? You little bug," she said, aiming a shot only for a laser burst to hit her apparently from ground level.

Strika glared down at Lilo, who still had a smoking hand pointed upwards. "Leave us alone, you big dummy!" she shouted.

Spittor ran to the aid of his boss, sending his tongues out to try and lasso Dune Runner. Dune Runner ducked under the tongues with a limbo-like move. Then he grabbed them with his four arms. "How low can you go?" he said before using the wheels in his feet to drive forward between Spittor's legs. Spittor sadly tried to pull his tongues back in on reflex, doing a barrel roll in the air and landing on his back. Before Spittor could get back up, Dune Runner jumped back and tied his arms and legs up with his own tongues. "That oughta keep ya outta trouble," he said.

--

Meanwhile, Thundercracker was looking for a new target since he lost track of the yellow dragon. Then he saw a human staggering out of the river, shivering from the cold bath he just got.

Matt looked up and said in a slow, deliberate, and, above all, suspicious voice, "Oh no...I must flee," before legging it into a warehouse. Thundercracker was in a bad mood and decided to vent on the human, following him in.

"Where are you, you organic worm?" said Thundercracker, "If you surrender now, I might give you a merciful death. But then again, flattery might be able to save you."

Matt was leaning against a shipping container with the door leaning half open. If the clone had paid attention, he might have noticed the container's lock was melted. "Wait, I have a present, in here," he said, grinning evilly and walking away from the door.

"Ooh, bribery, I like that in an organic," said Thundercracker, "Though I doubt anything you have is good enough for a warrior of my greatness."

Matt grinned evilly. "Oh...I guarantee you have never had something like this," he said before taking cover. Thundercracker nudged the door open and saw about 12 dozen red optics looking back.

--

Matt watched as the clone was pulled into the container, head first...despite the fact there wasn't room. "You know, I almost feel sorry for him," said Matt, "Keyword being almost." He then ran back to where the others were fighting.

The first thing he came across was a hogtied Spittor. Matt looked at Spittor who looked back evilly. "Where is that idiot egomaniac?" muttered Spittor.

Matt pointed to where a shower of bits were flying out into the river. "Over there...the spiderbots will be right with you," he said, wincing as Thundercracker's head bounced out to a melody of 'ow's'.

Spittor struggled even more to untie himself. Matt looked at the tight knots the tongues have been tied into and said, "Out of curiosity, who did this?"

"That dumb red bot over there," said Spittor, nodding his head in the general direction.

Matt looked and almost didn't recognize Dune Runner as he was fighting with Strika. Partially it was because the brim of his 'sunhat' was folded down to form a battle helmet around his head, giving his face a more robotic look with blue optics. But it was mostly because he was actually putting effort into keeping Strika away from Lilo and Stitch. And he was doing pretty well too.

Matt whistled. "Nice combat work," he said, leaning on the struggling Decepticon. He added, "Stop struggling or I call...them." Spittor looked back at the scuttling spiderbots and immediately froze. "That's better," said Matt, patting Spittor on the shoulder, "You keep still like that and they'll leave you alone. Or not." Several of the spiderbots had crawled onto the Decepticon out of curiosity, one even falling asleep. Matt grinned, "Heh...do not disturb," he said and went to help with the others.

Blackout had knocked Bulkhead and Optimus away when he noticed Strika being attacked by a smaller red bot. He turned his attention towards that bot and started to walk forward. Thus, he didn't notice Morph sneaking up on him from behind until he morphed into Tank and bit Blackout on the skidplate. "GAH! ANNOYING ORGANIC! GETOFF!" he yelled, trying to reach round to pull Morph off.

Matt and Chloe stared at the large Decepticon trying to pull the experiment off his robo-butt for about 10 seconds before they fell to the ground laughing. "Definitely worth it," said Chloe before remembering something. "Where are the bots?" she said and heard an explosion. Strika turned to see Thundercracker's angry-sounding head land on Skywarp, jolting him up.

"Ugh, I've had enough of this," said Strika before grabbing Dune Runner, picking him up, and hurling him into the air.

Dune Runner didn't seem bothered, deploying his hoverboard and swooping down at Strika. "COWABUNGA!!" Not expecting a non-Decepticon to be able to fly, Strika was too shocked to be able to avoid Dune Runner and was knocked aside. But then Cyclonus flew up to intercept him.

Cyclonus came to a stop in front of Dune Runner. "You're not going anywhere, Autobot," he said, angrily.

"Mistake 1: I ain't an Autobot, but I ain't with you either. Mistake 2: I'm not goin', you are," said Dune Runner. Suddenly, panels on his railing flipped open to reveal blasters which began pelting Cyclonus with laser blasts.

Matt grinned. "Jumba, never misses a trick," he said.

The blasts distracted Cyclonus enough for Dune Runner to swoop in and deliver a quadruple hammer blow to Cyclonus's head and send him spiraling downwards to land on top of Oil Slick.

Strika glared at Dune Runner. "You made a grave error today," she said. She got back to her feet and called, "Fall back! On the double!" Then she transformed and drove off.

Matt grinned. "And take your rubbish with you!" he yelled.

Just then, Skywarp fully regained conscious and looked up to see Thundercracker's disembodied head on his chestplate. "What are you looking at?" said Thundercracker, "Of course, I would find it hard to keep your eyes off me." Skywarp screamed in a way that reminded Matt of an old friend and teleported away, taking the head with him.

Then Blackout managed to rip Morph off, taking a large portion of his skidplate with him. Then he transformed into his helicopter mode. Oil Slick and a dazed Cyclonus loaded the bound Spittor onto Blackout before taking off.

"AND DON'T COME BACK!!" yelled Chloe, firing a lightning bolt into the hole in Blackout's armor as a final parting shot.

"I have a feeling they'll be again," said Optimus, "But I think we've won ourselves a reprieve."

"So? Nuke em into the bedrock," said Matt before seeing Chloe's eye. "Unless, of course, someone sold them?" he added, angrily.

"Um...oh, here comes Dune Runner," said Chloe quickly.

Dune Runner hovered down to the ground before dismounting his board. His helmet unfolded back into a sunhat as he said, "Dat wasn't so bad."

Matt sighed. "Easy when you're ten feet tall and armor plated," he said.

Optimus approached Dune Runner and said, "Are you sure you can't be persuaded to join the Autobots? We could really use a fighter like you."

"Like I said, de Autobots ain't the group for me. Me one true place is back on my Earth, with the Pelekais."

Optimus shrugged and said, "Fair enough. Of course, I'm sure Ultra Magnus would allow you on the Elite Guard at any time, if you feel like it."

Stitch however looked at Dune Runner. "Where did you learn to fight like that?" he said.

Dune Runner grinned at him and said, "From you, of course."

Matt sniggered. Then Matt turned serious and said, "Ok, we need to clean up all this mess. We probably should collect ego-bot's pieces before the Decepticons do, or before the spiderbots make something dangerous with them." Then he turned to Chloe and said, "And you are going to fill me in on what happened that 'week' I was gone."

The spiderbots had apparently been quite tidy. A pile of mechanical components being all that remained of Thundercracker's body, though Matt was sure the laser cannons were missing.

--

Meanwhile, the group was being watched from a spy satellite. Said satellite was beaming its information directly to Mantichrome's temporary base where he had been watching the battle.

Mantichrome had not had a good few days. Leafstripper couldn't regenerate his body till the spiderbots wrecked it and was complaining constantly. And to make it worse, the Autobots and that merc had joined forces AND given the gang backup. "This...could be trouble," he said, looking at Dune Runner.

Just then, a voice came in through his comlink. "Hey, boss bot," said Roughshell, "We found something I think you'll find interesting."

"If it's not a organic killing supervirus, you can go jump in a car crusher, I'm not in the mood...AND TELL LEAFSTRIPPER IF HE DOESN'T SHUT UP, I'LL MELT HIM DOWN FOR SPARTE PARTS!!!" said Mantichrome.

"But we think it might give us an edge," said Roughshell.

"Fine, maybe its Leafstripper's mute button," Mantichrome muttered, looking at an overturned bucket welded down with the sign 'Do not open till Leafstripper's body is recovered'.

When Mantichrome came down to see what the commotion was about, he was surprised to see a giant bird cage hanging from the ceiling. What was even more surprising was that there was a large red and black robotic bird inside it, incessantly pecking at the bars.

"Ok...what in Nullspace is that?" he said, glaring at Roughshell.

"We think it's another Transformer," said Deathgrip, "Only we couldn't find a spark. At least not in its body."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Mantichrome.

"It was carrying this," said Deathgrip, holding out what looked like a blue digital tapedeck with the Decepticon insignia on its flashing red screen.

"What the smeg?. Oh no, now I'm talking like that damn merc," said Mantichrome, having a minor processor breakdown.

"We're not sure what it is," said Deathgrip, "But it's positive for Cybertronian spark energy. We've tried all kinds of methods to examine it, but we haven't found out much."

"Did you try pressing the play button?" said Mantichrome in an annoyed tone.

Deathgrip looked at it. "Hmm...seems so obvious when you say it," he said, pressing the button.

Immediately, a robotic voice started coming out of it, "All will obey Soundwave! All Autobots shall yield to Soundwave's will! All humans shall be slaves under Soundwave!"

Mantichrome said simply, "No." The bird looked a bit amused at this.

"Soundwave must regenerate. Soundwave must have revenge on Autobots and techno-organic," said the media player.

"Ok...well done, Deathgrip. You found the devil's Dolby player," said Mantichrome, glaring at Deathgrip.

"I think this is the spark container of a Decepticon," said Deathgrip, "One apparently named Soundwave."

"Wait, sure I heard that before...oh well. So, Soundwave, who is this person you want revenge on? Maybe we can help each other?" said Mantichrome smoothly.

* * *

There's another chapter. And with it, the introduction of the first of the new OC Transformers. (Dirge and Thrust don't completely count since they're just copies of Starscream.) I had a lot of fun designing Dune Runner, whose picture is on my account on deviantART. By the way, regarding Dune Runner's voice, since Phil LaMarr was already doing other voices on the show like Jazz and Jetstorm, he could Dune Runner's voice as well. In other words, Dune Runner would sound exactly like Hermes Conrad from Futurama. Speaking of voice actors, Wreck-Gar's mercifully short-lived ditty and Stitch's subsequent destruction of his instrument refers to how Weird Al Yankovic, who voices Wreck-Gar, made a guest star appearance on Lilo & Stitch: The Series as an annoying singing ministrel who appeared in the same episode as Tank, which Morph turned into to attack Blackout.

Also, I think I've done a pretty good job in capturing Team Chaar's personalities. I know there was not very much time to portray them on the show, but judging from their released bios, I think I stayed reasonably in character. I know was in character with Skywarp and Thundercracker. Scalpel isn't quite officially on the show. He's solely based off of the picture that Derrick J. Wyatt did of him after seeing his toy in the Revenge of the Fallen line. Blackout's attack on the base was based off what his live-action counterpart did in the first Transformers film, as well as his rotor transforming before the rest of him. Oil Slick appeared in the comic 'Bots of Science' where Ratchet tended to him after he got infected with Cosmic Rust when he was testing it in the battlefield. By the way, Oil Slick's deco in this story would be closer to the Toxic Oil Slick toy that I hope will be coming soon.

Anyways, we'll be seeing Team Chaar again in the future. We'll be definitely be seeing more of Dune Runner. But I think Mantichrome has something nasty in plan now that he's found Soundwave and Laserbeak. What exactly could it be? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out. Please review.


	4. In the Long Haul

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 4: In the Long Haul**

As every scientist knows, one cannot consider an invention complete until it had some test runs. While the space bridge wasn't quite complete, the transwarp field generation system was close enough to readiness to be tested.

Matt and his crew also had read lots of files on what could pop out of an unstable portal. Some of the files had come with color diagrams.

"So, we're only clicking this on for a few seconds, right?" said Matt, "I don't know how powerful this transwarp stuff is, but if it can reach into our multiverse, some bad could easily come out of there."

Bulkhead looked at the various nasty hardware Matt's crew had insisted on bringing. "Is that all necessary?" he asked.

Matt looked at it. "I dunno...did Draco remember the particle blaster?" he muttered.

"Well, better safe than sorry," said Professor Sumdac.

"Just to be making sure, ve vill set coordinates to location with minimum life," said Jumba.

To Sumdac and Bulkhead this seemed to be a codeword as every trooper looked worried and took more careful aim.

"Here, let me," said Bulkhead, "We'll just set this for one of the junkyards on Cybertron. Nothing dangerous there."

Matt gulped. "Erm...you sure? I heard stories about NSC espionage drones being eaten..." he began.

Bulkhead gave Matt a suspicious look. "Espionage drones? You mean like spy bots?" he asked.

"Erm, let's just fire it up," said Matt quickly.

A glowing blue orb appeared in the middle of the space bridge's 'prongs'. After a tense minute, Matt walked cautiously up. "I think it's..." he began and was knocked out as a cube shot out the portal, clocking him on the head as it went by. Immediately, all the crews' weapons focused on the block of blue metal. But when it appeared to be inanimate, they lowered their weapons.

Matt got up unsteadily. "I knew it. We linked to the dimension of evil Rubix cubes," he gibbered.

Bulkhead picked up the cube and looked at it. "It's just a trash block," he said, "It's totally harmless."

Matt kicked the trash cube...and was electrocuted. "Isn't...dead...enough…" he rasped.

"It's just garbage," said Bulkhead, "But at least we know the space bridge works now."

"Great," said Chloe, "Now where are we going to do with this big block of scrap metal?"

"Just toss it," said Bulkhead, "It isn't worth anything."

"But it electrocuted me," moaned Matt.

NegaMorph smirked and muttered, "I vote we keep it in that case."

"I don't know," said Draco, "The only thing this thing's useful for is as an anchor."

NegaMorph sighed. "Ok...can't blame a morph for trying."

Draco picked it up and carried it to the window. "Where's the dumpster for this place?" he asked.

Techo sighed. "Just toss it..." he said, heaving the cube out the window.

The cube fell down the streets below. By coincidence, it landed on the back of a certain orange garbage truck. "Hello? What is this?" said Wreck-Gar. He transformed to robot mode and held the cube up to his face. After staring for a minute, he said, "Ah, greetings, traveler, have you come far?" The cube obviously did not respond. "Ah, shy are we?" said Wreck-Gar happily. The cube remained silent. "Come with me, we have much to talk about," said Wreck-Gar before putting the cube in his backpack and driving off.

--

Meanwhile, Matt was having a talk with Optimus Prime and Bulkhead. "So, if Ultra Magnus is on spark-support, who's the current leader of Cybertron?" asked Matt.

"Sentinel Prime. He's a complete glitchhead who hates organics," said Bulkhead.

Matt sighed. "So...about as likely to even let me land, let alone listen to the NSC's proposal," he muttered.

"Yes, Sentinel's never been that good at negotiations, even in our academy days," said Optimus.

"So...what would be the chances of, for example, him shooting our ship down without a single warning?" said Matt, as if reading from an invisible list.

"Most likely, he'll think it's a Decepticon attack," said Optimus, "Of course, I'm not sure how much different that would be."

"So...insta-death, excuse me, I have to go call General Neilsson and yell at him," said Matt, his eye twitching.

"Who's General Neilsson?" asked Bulkhead.

"Oh, just a jerk who does not like me," said Matt, "Why do I keep running into jerks with authority?"

Bulkhead shrugged. "Universe hates you?" he tried.

Matt twitched. "I knew it," he said in an overly cheerful voice.

--

Meanwhile, Leafstripper pushed a wrecked security drone over and started looking for the part he had been sent to find. "Why Mantichrome send Leafstripper to steal circuit board? Is boring." At least he had a body again, since the spiderbots clearly weren't go to give his old one back.

Just then, Leafstripper's audio receptors picked up the sound of someone coming. "Uh oh, trouble," he said. He transformed into his Locust form and hid behind some crates.

The door glowed and melted to allow Matt, gibbering to himself and surrounded by a plasma field, wandered in, bouncing off objects that got in the way till his plasma field dissolved them. "Why? Was it something I did in a past life? Is there some kind of curse on me?" said Matt. He sat down on the crates that Leafstripper was hiding behind. "Ugh, jerks, creeps, and flying objects, can't I ever avoid them. Those Decepticons better stay away if they know what's good for them."

Leafstripper shook in minor terror. If he was any judge of organic moods, Matt was not in a prisoner taking mood. 'Think, think, what normal fleshy creature do?' thought Leafstripper. Then he recalled that crickets and grasshoppers chirping was a sign of lack of attention.

Matt turned and looked around as he heard a screeching noise. "What the heck?" he said before looking down to see several sparks coming off a metal locust which was trying to rub its hind legs together in an innocent way.

"Nothing to see here...is not Leafstripper...locust is friendly squishy organic," gibbered Leafstripper as Matt glared...and then started laughing insanely.

--

At a construction site, several workers looked at Sumdac tower at a small explosion. "What's Sumdac tinkerin' with now?" said one worker.

Suddenly, the smoking remains of an insectoid robot landed in the middle of the worksite. "Ow...why universe hate Leafstripper?" moaned the robot.

The workers and the bot looked at each other before they all screamed and made off in different directions. In the workers' case cause they were terrified, in Leafstripper's case cause he'd seen a spiderbot.

Word about the strange robot, which may be a Decepticon, spread across the construction site quickly. The last workers to hear it were the ones working in the vehicles. A somewhat large dump truck with a scoop loader on the front was busy scooping up loose dirt when one of the workers ran to it.

"Oh no, if it's those spiders again," he said in a small voice, getting out slowly. The spiderbot sitting on top of the cab was interested to hear this

The worker, a puny little man with a worn face, clambered out of the vehicle. He ran as fast he could towards the other vehicles. Unlike his yellow and grey dump truck, these two were lime green and purple, since they were made by another company. One was a cherry picker truck designed so that the bucket of the arm doubled as the cab of the truck, with arms on the bucket for lifting.

The other vehicle was an enormous road roller, big enough to pave a two-lane highway road with one sweep. The outer parts of the main roller were bumpy so that it could pull itself forward and allow the smooth rear wheels to flatten the indentions the bumps left.

The spiderbot jumped down and got on the dump truck, stabbing a control plug into it before waving at Leafstripper. "Hallo victiiiim," it whistled in a friendly voice.

Leafstripper turned his head to see the dump truck rolling towards him. He only had enough time to scream before the scoop whacked him several times. Then he was scooped up and tossed away, causing all the dirt that was in the loader to fly everywhere and land on all three vehicles.

The spiderbot waved. "Bye bye sucker..." it said before it saw the vehicles start to shake. This looked more fun.

"Oh no, my truck," whined its previous driver.

The driver in the cherry picker, a tall skinny man with a cigar in his mouth, brought the bucket back down and got out. "Geeze, Paul, haven't you ever heard of a parkin' break?" he said.

The spiderbot jumped and landed on the skinny guy. "Hiya BUUUDDYYYY!" it said in a creepily deep voice.

"Gah! What is that thing?" shouted the worker before he started swatting the spiderbot with his hard hat.

Then the road roller's driver, a very large and burly man, clambered down the ladder at the back of his vehicle and said, "That's not how you squash a bug. This is!" He pulled off the spiderbot and threw it onto the ground before stamping on it.

The guy grinned, right up until the unharmed spiderbot lifted him up by his foot and bashed him into the ground a few times. It turned to look at them and said in a recording of Clint Eastwood's voice, "Go ahead...make my day!"

"What is that thing?" asked Paul the dump truck driver.

"I'll tell you what it is," said the road roller driver, "It's a sign that we need to take a break."

"Fine with me," said the cherry picker driver, "Let's go get lunch. Come along, Paul."

The spiderbot glared. First the squishy ones tried to stomp it...now they leave? Not a chance. "No leave yet...fun starts NOW!" it said, folding out what was clearly a laser.

"Uh oh," said the road roller driver. The three construction worker ran screaming as the spiderbot chased them, shooting laser blasts at their backsides. As it was they never saw the glowing shards melt into their vehicles.

The blue crystals, which were apparently in the dirt the dump truck had flung, had landed on each of the construction vehicle. One went into the steamroller's main roller, another when into the side of the cherry picker's cab/bucket, and a third went into the dump truck's bed.

When the light faded, the vehicles didn't look any different, except the light expelled all the dirt off of them. Then, suddenly the dump truck shifted into reverse and backed into the cherry picker. Then the cherry picker's arm whacked the dump truck as a voice from it said, "Hey! Watch where you backin' up!"

The dump truck rolled forward, "Sorry sir...wait, when could we talk?"

"Come to think of it, when could we move by ourselves?" asked the cherry picker, moving its arms around.

When one of the arms touched the road roller, it responded, "Keep your hands to yourself. Wait, did I say that?"

"I think so, sir," said the dump truck.

The road roller's attention shifted to the dump truck. "Ah, great, the losermobile's talkin' too."

"Heh, losermobile, that's a good one," said the cherry picker.

"Am not a loser," said the dump truck in a small voice

The road roller and cherry picker seemed to exchange glances before the cherry picker reached over and tipped the dump truck onto its side. Both of the construction vehicles started laughing. "That's not funny!" whined the dump truck.

Suddenly, its bed flipped backwards and the underside split apart to form arms with the back wheels on the shoulders. They flipped forwards to plug into the back of the cab. Then the underside of the cab flipped down and extended into legs. The scoop in the front divided into two and swiveled back to cover the newly formed hips. Then a head wearing a helmet popped out of the top of the cab. The resulting robot had a distinctively turtle-like look, especially the bed forming a shell on his back and his beak-like nose.

The others stared. "How'd you do that?" said the cherry picker

"Um, I don't know," said the former dump truck and he was looking at his new hands, "I just did it on reflex, I guess."

"Hey, bet we could do it. If a wuss like him can do it, so can we," said the road roller.

Then the back of the cherry picker's bed extended outwards before folding the wheel in. Then it flipped back on itself to form legs. Then the sides of the cherry picker separated and formed into arms. The bucket disconnected itself as the lower cab flipped forward to form the chest. A head wearing a hard hat popped out. The head had round eyes with square pupils that were red, unlike the dump truck bot's large yellow visor with two round pupils in it. The mouth was also red with a grid-like design. The resulting robot was noticeably tall and skinny with the bucket arm attached to his back. "See? Any palooka can do it," he said to the road roller.

Then the road roller's main roller split vertically down the middle. As it spread out, the bumpy wheels on the side uncurled to form arms. At the same time, the back wheels split horizontally and flipped backwards, feet coming out of them as they snapped together to form legs. When the main roller fully extended, revealing a slightly smaller roller underneath, a head popped out with a hard hat, a very square jaw, and small red eyes. The final robot form was very broad shouldered, barrel-chested (figuratively and literally) and was much taller than the other two.

"See? Too easy...what the slag's that?" he said, spotting a robot spider with a singed hard hat on it, walk round the corner and stop as it saw them.

"New victi...friends," it said

"I don't like that thing," said the dump truck.

"Here, let me show you how to squash a bug," said the roller bot. He lifted one foot over the spiderbot which extended on a pole so it resembled a tamper. Then it stomped on the spiderbot several times, creating a lot of shaking in the ground.

The spiderbot scuttled out from under it and tried to charge its laser...and saw in horror when it saw its hard hat was flat. "Ok...you death wish," it said in binary.

"Ha, you and what army, peewee?' said the cherry picker bot.

The spiderbot looked at them. It could not believe that these three were such idiots. Even the Decepticons had learnt to keep away from them. It scuttled over to a pile of girders and made a clanging. "Hey, cut that...out," said the road roller bot, his voice vanishing when about 1000 more bots peered out from seemingly empty places...and aimed.

"Want to re-write previous audio file, toaster?" said the lead spiderbot.

"Ok, I vote we go get some oil," said the cherry picker bot.

"I second that," said the dump truck bot.

They turned to see a couple of hundred more spiderbots. "Not yet...you learn why we feared..." said the lead spiderbot before cackling.

Then it seemed like the three construction bots were in the middle of a laser show, a very painful laser show. "Ow! No fair! We don't have zappers! Ow!" cried the roller bot. One of the spiderbots interrupted him by him by hitting him on the head with a girder hard enough to send him a foot into the ground and bend the girder at a 90 degree right angle.

"Cheese it!" yelled the cherry picker bot. The three of them transformed to their vehicle modes and drove out of the construction site, smashing the fence along the way. The spiderbots chased after them a short way and the last spiderbot managed to laser 'The spiderbots were here' on the cherry picker's rear plate.

--

Meanwhile, Matt, having let out his frustration on Leafstripper, knew that Mantichrome must be on this planet if Leafstripper was. So he gathered the Autobots together to brief them.

"Ok...behold...Mantichrome..." said Matt, turning a hologram on of the aforementioned villain, "This guys a grade one pain in the ass."

"Is he a Decepticon?" asked Optimus.

"Not really, he's probably worse," said Matt.

"I don't see how someone could be worse," said Bumblebee, "What does he turn into? Can't be anything big from that form."

"Nothing, this brings us to his Monstercons," said Matt, making the gruesome foursome appear. "These are Leafstripper, Whipsting, Deathgrip, and Roughshell. You can easily recognize them in any form. We don't normally have arthropods as big as them on Earth," said Matt.

"They're still pretty small compared to us," said Bulkhead.

"Yeah, until they combine to form Monstructor," said Matt, changing the hologram to show the mechanical monstrosity.

Bumblebee gulped. "Well...that might help," he said.

Matt nodded and pointed to an eye symbol. "Weakspots are here, blast the eye and it's game over for them. Sadly they come back more often then Jumba's curry."

"Also, Mantichrome's got two more monsters." He switched to show a jellyfish like creature and a robot that looked like a round shark with crab legs. "This is the Schizophrona, who can drain brains and paralyze. And this is a Sharkticon, Mantichrome mass-produces these chompers."

Chloe nodded. "They almost punched our ticket last time we met Schizo," she said.

"Not to mention the Sharkticons are driven by appetite," said Matt, "I don't know if they can bite through Cybertronian armor plating, but they'll certainly try. Mantichrome can also fire viruses almost as well as Chip."

"In that case, we better patrol the city," said Optimus, "These bots could be a serious threat."

--

The five Autobots then went down to the lobby and exited Sumdac Tower. "Ok, men," said Optimus, "We'll do a quick lookover throughout the city. Keep your optics peeled for any bot that seems unusual. Report as soon as you find anything. Autobots, transform and roll out!" The five Autobots transformed and drove off, not noticing the three construction vehicles in a nearby parking lot.

Matt however did, luckily for the construction vehicles, he just giggled before walking after the others. "I see roboconstructors," he gibbered.

"What's with that nutcase?" said the cherry picker.

The road roller wasn't listening. "Hmm...roll...out...yes, I like the sounds of it. I think I'll use it," he said.

"Use it for what?" asked the dump truck.

"My name," said the road roller, "If we're gonna be alive, we'll need names. From now on, you can call me Rollout."

"GAH! SPIDERBOT!" gibbered the dump truck and the trio went still as several spiderbots ran after the 'nutcase'. After a minute they sighed in relief.

"Ok, I'm gonna need a name too. Let's see..." The cherry picker looked up at Sumdac Tower and said, "I know, Tower!"

"'Tower'? You're gonna call yourself 'Tower'?"said Rollout.

"Not just 'Tower'," said the cherry picker quickly looking around and spotting a street sign that said 'High st.' "_High_tower. Yeah, that's it, I'm Hightower."

The dump truck sighed. "Gee very original," it muttered

"Well, what are you calling yourself?" demanded Hightower.

The dump truck thought back to when he was listening to his former driver and his companions. Then he remembered the last thing they said before the spiderbot chased them away. "I got it!" said the dump truck, "My name shall be 'Along Paul'!"

The other two looked at each other. "You realize that's a dumb name...right?" said Hightower

"Uh, I guess so," said the dump truck.

"So change it already," said Rollout.

"Ok..." said the dump truck, "How about...'Long Haul'?"

"I like it. Nice one...Long Haul," said Rollout."

Great, so...now what do we do?" asked Long Haul.

A red Mercedes drove by them and Rollout and Hightower immediately started making cat calls after it. Long Haul sighed. It was so hard to be the only one with a fully functional processor.

--

Meanwhile, Mantichrome was busy working on his project. It was nearly completed. All he needed was that circuit board. What the robot devil was taking Leafstripper?

A whistling noise got his attention and Mantichrome sighed, opening a window to let Mantichrome's head land. "Let me guess...spiderbots again," he said.

"Not just spiderbots, Matt found Leafstripper and blasted him into construction site. Then spiderbot whacked Leafstripper with dump truck and tossed him up with dirt and blue crystals."

Mantichrome stared. Even by Leafstripper's luck, this was impressive. "Did you get the circuit board?" he said.

"Yes, Matt shoved it down under Leafstripper's neck plate," said Leafstripper.

With that the Monstercon head hacked up the circuit board. "Was giving Leafstripper sore audio unit."

Mantichrome examined the circuit board. By remarkable luck, it was undamaged. "Well done," said Mantichrome, "You didn't lose you body parts again, did you?"

"Spiderbots use me like golf ball...owie," said Leafstripper.

Mantichrome sighed and said, "We'll do something about that. As soon as I finish this up." He took the circuit board and started installing into his device.

"Hey...Leafstripper ain't...OW! began Leafstripper only to be kicked away by Mantichrome 'accidently' into a bucket.

Soon Mantichrome was finished and looked at the device. It had a canister shape with a handle on one end and four prongs on the other. "Excellent," he said, "Now to find a bot to test this on."

--

Meanwhile, the gang was exploring the city for any Monstercon sightings. Apart from some construction workers complaining that some robot spiders had stolen their vehicles, it was pretty quiet.

"Ok, let's try the dump next," said Matt, "More than likely, that's where Leafstripper eventually ended up."

"Did someone say 'Dump'?" said a voice.

"Oh no." muttered Matt.

Then a familiar garbage truck drove up. Wreck-Gar transformed and said, "Greetings, friends. Can Wreck-Gar the hero help you?"

"You could go away? My brain can't take this." said Matt in a manically cheerful voice. The Autobots transformed to their robot modes.

Then Wreck-Gar paused and said, "Hang on a sec." He pulled the blue metal block from his backpack and held it to the side of his head. He listened for a minute and then said, "Yeah, it's the Autobots again. You're quick with updates."

Matt stared before giggling. "It's the Rubix cube," he said in a shaky voice, grinning manically.

"What's that?" asked Wreck-Gar before listening, "Yes, you think you bounced off this guy's head? That's odd."

"Uh, Wreck-Gar," said Prowl, "Who are you talking to?"

"This is my new friend," said Wreck-Gar, "I met him today."

"Oh? And what's his name?" asked Bumblebee, "Blocky? Cubix?"

"Nope, he says his name is Blurr."

The Autobots looked shocked at this. "Blurr? He's alive?" said Bumblebee.

Matt was giggling even more. "Now it's zombie robots...undead...UNDEAD!" he said

"Wait a minute," said Optimus, "How could Blurr be that cube?"

"Uh, who's Blurr?" asked Chloe.

"Blurr was an Autobot intelligence agent," said Bumblebee, "He came to Earth to help us with Megatron's space bridge project, only he ended up getting transwarped with Skywarp and Thundercracker."

Ratchet sighed, "Those clones must have crushed him."

Wreck-Gar listened to the Blurr cube. "No, he says someone called Shockwave did it."

"Shockwave?" asked Bulkhead.

"Uh-huh," said Wreck-Gar, "Blurr said that after he got away from the clones, he ran back to Cybertron and went to Longarm to tell about the traitor named Shockwave. Only it turned out they were the same bot and Shockwave crushed Blurr. He doesn't really know what happened after that," said Wreck-Gar.

"You bounced off my head," moaned Matt.

"Wait, you mean he's still alive? In that cube?" asked Bumblebee.

"It is possibly that his spark chamber survived the crushing," said Prowl, "But how could Wreck-Gar communicate with him?"

"I know garbage," said Wreck-Gar proudly.

"He talks it most of the time," muttered Matt to NegaMorph.

Just then, Chip paused. "Hang on, I'm getting a message," he said, "It's from Dune Runner."

"Didn't he, Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley go out for a drive?" asked Draco.

"Yes, but they've apparently run into trouble."

"Decepticons?" asked Optimus.

"Mantichrome?" asked Matt.

"Something else," said Chip.

--

Dune Runner and his passengers were in a bit of a pickle. They were driving along one of the roads outside Detroit when an enormous road roller blocked their path, with a dump truck and a cherry picker behind it.

The weird part was the trucks appeared to be either alive or on auto-pilot.

"That's strange, what are Earth construction vehicles doing out here?" asked Pleakley.

"I do not know," said Jumba, "But they are being in way." He honked the buggy's horn and said, "Hey! Please to be removing yourselves so we can be moving on!"

"Hey, we're driving here," said the cherry picker, turning its arm to 'look' at them. Pleakley simply fainted away from shock

"Uh, Jumba," said Lilo, "I think these vehicles are actually Transformers."

The dump truck said, "That what we are? Weird name."

"Let me talk to them," said Dune Runner, "Dey're my people, sorta." Lilo and Stitch got out of the back seats while Jumba carried Pleakley off of the front seats. Then Dune Runner transformed to robot mode and said, "Hey guys, nice day for driving, eh?"

The construction vehicles also changed to their robot forms just as Pleakley woke up. He took one look, screamed and fainted again

"Eh, don't mind Pleakley, he's de nervous type. De name's Dune Runner. What's yours?"

"I'm Long Haul," said the former dump truck.

"I'm Hightower," said the cherry picket bot.

"My name's Rollout," said the big roller robot, "And we want..." He turned to Hightower and asked, "What do we want?"

"Tell them we want oil," said Hightower.

Long Haul sighed. "I don't think we should ask for things right away..." he began but was interrupted as Rollout spoke up.

"Yeah, what he said. We want oil. Uh, where do we get some?" asked Rollout.

Dune Runner looked confused for a second. "Dere be some oil at de Autobots' crib but I don't think..." he said and was stopped as Hightower interrupted

"Then take us to this 'crib' of which you speak," said Hightower, "We'll drink till we reboot."

"Guys, you can't just go into someone's home and..." started Long Haul.

Dune Runner said, "Ya can't just drink someone's stuff, dat's not cool, mon."

"Aw, pipe down, shorty," said Hightower. Then he turned to Long Haul and said, "And you need to keep yer priorities straight. We're bigger, so we need more oil. Comprende?"

Long Haul gulped and muttered, "Yes sir."

Dune Runner however did not look pleased. "Who you callin' shorty, mon?" he exclaimed.

"Ain't it obvious?" said Hightower, "Rollout, knock the shrimp over and show him who's the big guy here."

Rollout placed a hand on Dune Runners head and pushed him back as hard as he could, sending the dune buggy sprawling. The two laughed as Dune Runner got up with as much dignity as he could.

"Hey! You can't just push him around, you big bullies!" shouted Lilo.

"Aw, ain't that cute, he's got pets," said Rollout.

Lilo glared at them.

"Er, don't mind my friends," said Long Haul nervously, "We just came to life and they don't really know how to behave-"

"Ah, put a muffler in it," said Hightower, "Don't ya wanna have fun?"

"Not this kinda fun..." said Long Haul nervously. He whispered, "What if they know those...spiders?"

Hightower looked worried for a second then shrugged it off. "How could these little meatbags know those..." His voice trailed off when he heard the sound of sirens approaching. The three construction bots turned to see a fire truck, an ambulance, a yellow compact, a SWAT van, a motorcycle, and a garbage truck driving towards them.

"Oh great...the cops," said Rollout before gulping.

Several spiderbots were hiding on the sides of the road. They popped their heads up long enough to blink 'You are scrap metal' in Morse code.

Rollout grabbed Hightower's arm. "Man...the spiders..." he gibbered. Hightower turned to look a fraction too late though he was sure he heard a familiar evil cackling from a sewer grating. He was forced back to reality as some more humans and a black blob jumped out the vehicles when then also changed into robots.

"Ok, everyone calm down," said Optimus, "What's going on here?"

"We-we don't want no trouble," said Long Haul desperately, "We were just asking where we could find some oil and my friends got carried away."

Prowl noticed their coloring and apparent vehicle modes and muttered, "Oh no, not more Constructicons."

Bulkhead stepped forward and said, "Hey there, my name's Bulkhead. You guys just came into town?"

"Er, I'm Long Haul, and we just to life," said the dump truck.

"Dammit, we just want some oil," said Hightower in an annoyed voice.

Dune Runner glared and said, "Dese jerks were all up in mah face."

Hightower glared, "Shut up shorty."

"Uh, Autobots, we need to talk," said Optimus. The Autobots got into a huddle and Optimus said, "I'm not too sure about these guys."

"I know I'm not," said Ratchet, "They're just a bunch of oil-chugging glitches like the last bunch."

"Oh, come on," said Bulkhead, "They only just came online. We should give them a chance."

"Dey be totally uncool jerks," said Dune Runner.

"Well, I think Long Haul's different," said Bulkhead.

"Oh please," said Bumblebee, "The only thing that separates these guys from Decepticons is that they don't have the insignia."

Rollout however had lost patience. "Hey, you gonna give us oil or we gotta get mean?" he yelled.

Long Haul gulped "I dunno...these guys look competent," he said.

"Geeze, Long Haul, what are you? A dump truck or a wheelbarrow?" said Hightower.

"I'm just saying that... What's that thing?" asked Long Haul pointing.

The others turned to look. "See what?"

--

On top of a small building, Mantichrome risked peering out again. Normally he'd hve shot rthe dump truck for rumbling him but he'd also seen the spiderbots had had no wish to join leafstrippers head only club.

"Hmm, let's see if there are any Allspark fragments around here," said Mantichrome. He turned on his device's scanner and waved it around. As soon it was pointing at Wreck-Gar, it started beeping.

Mantichrome looked down at the other bots and glared. "However...I have a bad feeling...oh no, I knew it," he said spotting Matt, "That merc probably told them all about me. The Autobots will attack me as soon as I appear. And even if he didn't, his friends would still shoot at me."

"Hmm, I better wait for a better opportunity to strike," said Mantichrome, "Which shouldn't be that hard. I am designed for assassination."

Mantichrome carefully got into a position to watch.

--

After staring for a minute, Hightower said, "Ah, you're seein' things, Long Haul."

"Well, maybe you're right," said Long Haul.

Rollout laughed at Long Haul and turned in time to see a spiderbot make a throat cutting motion before vanishing again.

"I think we oughta send these bots away," said Ratchet.

"Ah, give them a chance," said Bulkhead, "You can't paint all construction bots with the same brush."

Matt's thoughts for some reason wandered to the spiderbots. "Yes...you can't," he said distantly.

Then Bulkhead went over to the construction bots. "Hey, maybe we started out on the wrong servo. How about we talk things over at our place? We've got some oil you could have," he said.

The three bots immediately seemed to warm up. "Sounds great, lead the way...what's your name, bot?" said Hightower.

--

A little while later, the bots were driving to the Autobots' base. However, everyone but Bulkhead were still suspicious of the new bots.

Matt was riding in Bumblebee with Sari. "I have a really bad feeling about these three," said Matt, "Long Haul seems ok, but the other two seem like bad news. Not to mention I never liked steamrollers, let alone Rollout."

"Well, Mixmaster and Scrapper weren't that bad," said Sari.

"But Dirt Boss sure was," said Bumblebee, "I agree with Matt, Hightower and Rollout are trouble."

"So...how do you get rid of them?" said Matt in a 'new business' type of voice.

"We transwarped them to the middle of Lake Eerie," said Sari, "Scrapper's on Dinobot Island and minding his own business, but we haven't seen Mixmaster or Dirt Boss."

"Oh...well...we could throw them through the space bridge," said Matt, randomly.

"Ok, you know anyone strong enough to throw Rollout?" asked Bumblebee.

Matt eyed the huge road roller. "He is the biggest steamroller I've ever seen," admitted Matt, "We could ask the spiderbots. They could send him by installments. We probably won't need too once they found out they pushed Dune Runner. They like him."

"I'm not sure," said Sari, "I think Bulkhead may be right. We should give them the benefit of the doubt before we do anything."

"Long Haul, I'm happy to. The other two are bullies and I have no patience for bullies," said Matt.

"Maybe they can change," said Sari, "Once they've gotten used to the world, they may start being nicer."

"I dunno...I suppose, but if Dune's in my crew, and if they mess with him again, spiderbot time," said Matt.

"Just a couple more block and it'll be base sweet-" started Bulkhead before suddenly several streetlights fell down, blocking the road.

Matt leaned forward. "What the smeg?" he said, jumping out.

Then several garbage bots rolled out and pushed Prowl, Ratchet, and Optimus away. Matt ignited a plasma orb as another garbage bot advanced on him. "Spiderbots, if this is you, I'm hiding the DVD player for a month!" he yelled before spotting an eye symbol on the garbage bot. "Oh...or it could by Mantidufus."

Matt's suspicions were confirmed when Roughshell emerged from an alley and started using his ice beam to freeze up the street. Roughshell's attacks served perfectly to separate the group. Not only did it remove friction from the group, but he was able to build up walls to group off the construction bots, Bulkhead, and Wreck-Gar.

"Hey, crabby, come on," taunted Matt, adding "Or are you more chicken then crab?"

Roughshell transformed to robot mode and stomped towards Matt. His large feet created cracks in the ice so he didn't lose his footing.

"Your mother was a lobster and your dad was a word program," taunted Matt, spotting several optics peering out from a sewer grating.

"You're not fooling me that easily," said Roughshell, "I may be a crab, but you're the one who's gonna fry." He fired a heat beam at Matt, which he dodged, causing it to hit the sewer grating.

Matt looked at Sari. "You'd think they'd learn. Bye, Roughshell," he said.

Roughshell looked confused until several blackened and pissed off spiderbots came into view. "Us angry...you scrap…" said the lead one. Roughshell was greatly unnerved by the spiderbots and started blasting them with both ice and heat beams.

Matt wandered over to Sari. "Remember how I said they were evil?" he said conversationally as the spiderbots advanced as if nothing was happening.

"This seems kinda easy," said Sari, "If Mantichrome really was as bad as you said, he'd use more force." Sari winced as the spiderbots reached the Monstercon.

Matt raised a plasma shield as a shower of cogs and circuitry went everywhere. "Oh boy...you're right..." said Matt worriedly.

Just then, Mantichrome himself appeared, flying down from a roof top. He flew straight towards Wreck-Gar and the construction bots, who had all reverted to robot mode. "Time to see if my little invention works," said Mantichrome before shooting out paralyzing viruses from his free hand.

Matt and Sari ran at Mantichrome, the others either paralyzed or blocked off. "Hey, Manti, fancy seeing you here," said Matt cheerfully.

"Out of my way, Lynch," said Mantichrome, "I have business that doesn't concern you." He threw some viral lightning at Matt and Sari. Matt tackled Sari out of the way. He didn't know if computer viruses can affect techno-organics, but he wasn't taking chances.

Matt grinned. "Did you know the spiderbots are here?"

"You're just bluffing," said Mantichrome. Then the spiderbots, who were finished with Roughshell, tossed his head at Mantichrome. Mantichrome said in a slurred voice. "Ok...you're not bluffing. No matter. I have two more...OH COME ON!" he yelled as two more heads bounced off him followed by a rock with 'Not any more' on it in binary.

Mantichrome growled and said, "Fine, I'll just take what I came for and get out of here. He landed on Wreck-Gar and pointed his device at his chest.

"What's that?" asked Wreck-Gar.

"Something I put together," said Mantichrome before turning it on, "I call an Allspark Extractor." Matt charged at Mantichrome only to be backhanded into Sari. The spiderbots charged at Mantichrome but were too late as a glowing orb emerged from Wreck-Gar's body.

Mantichrome caught the Allspark fragment that came out of Wreck-Gar with his device. "Thanks for the shard, scrapheap," said Mantichrome before flying off.

"Glad...I...could...help..." said Wreck-Gar weakly as the light in his eyes started to fade. Then he fell down on the ground, his colors shifting to grey and black.

The spiderbots stopped for a second before, as one, their eyes glowed red. "I suggest cover," said Matt, backing up.

Then, very unexpectedly, panels on their backs opened up and small missile launchers emerged. They started firing their missiles at Mantichrome. "I didn't know they had missiles," said Draco.

"Neither did I..." said Matt weakly.

Mantichrome was astonished to be attacked miniature missiles. He had to swerve a lot to avoid some, but several hit their mark. "Ugh, slag flying, I need to warp out," he said. He looked around and spotted a computer store. Mantichrome dove straight through the glass window. While the customers inside panicked, Mantichrome opened a portal in one of the computer monitors. The Monstercon heads quickly hovered over to join him and they all disappeared through the portal. However, they didn't notice one spiderbot clinging to Roughshell's head.

Matt however had. "You think we should tell him?" he said to Chip.

Chip shrugged and said, "He'll find out on his own eventually."

The construction bots were backing up. "This is too weird, man...insane metal spiders...mutant brain sucking robots...we're outta here," said Rollout.

"Yeah, that dragon bot thing could come back," said Hightower, "We could be next."

"I don't want to go offline!" cried Long Haul, "I only just came online!" The three of them transformed to vehicle mode and drove through the ice barrier and away from the group.

Matt watched them go. "One less problem," he said before turning to see the others crowded round Wreck-Gar.

"Poor kid," said Ratchet, "He was as rough around the edges as you can get, but he had a good spark. It's a crime that Mantichrome stole it, literally."

"Oh...I dunno...I think he was bugged," said Matt absently.

"What should we do with Wreck-Gar?" asked Sari.

"Well, there's not much we can do," said Optimus, "We can't bring him back to life the same way you did with me. I suppose we could look for another Allspark fragment and..."

Suddenly, the blue block of metal that was at the top of the bin on Wreck-Gar's back started glowing bright blue. This glow spread all over Wreck-Gar. When the glow faded, the block was black and grey, but Wreck-Gar was in color again.

Matt stared. "Ok...is he alive again?" he said, poking Wreck-Gar

Then Wreck-Gar sat up and stated speaking rapidly in a very fast voice, "It is so good to be back in a mobile body again. I don't know if any of you knows what it's like to be trapped in one place and unable to see, hear, or move, but it is not pleasant. Not pleasant at all, I tell you."

Matt stared. "Ooook...." he said faintly.

"Wait, is that you Blurr?" asked Bumblebee.

"Yes it is me," said 'Wreck-Gar', "As Wreck-Gar has told you, my body was crushed beyond repair by Shockwave and left me in a state worse than stasis lock. If Wreck-Gar had not found, I might have gone insane from sheer isolation and boredom. So when Wreck-Gar apparently lost his spark, I was able to transfer my spark to his body. By the way, Shockwave is not to be trusted at all. I hope they've captured him at this point since he's also the head of Cybertron Intelligence, Longarm, my former boss! Can you imagine what it's like to report back to your superior only for him to try to slag you? Were you aware that Shockwave was really Longarm, because it caught me by surprise."

Matt suddenly yelled, "SHUT UP!!!" before walking off, gibbering nonsense.

"Uh, you're not planning on staying in Wreck-Gar's body, are you?" asked Optimus.

"Of course not," said Blurr, "It would dishonorable to steal the body of someone who saved and befriended you. I fully intend to give it back to Wreck-Gar as soon as I can find a replacement body for my own. Besides, Wreck-Gar's body is not to my taste at all. Its structure is too ramshackle, it moves far too slow, and the scent it gives would give away my presence."

Chloe sighed. "Subtle, he's almost got as much people skills as Neilsson," she muttered.

"Well, in his defense, Wreck-Gar ain't exactly model of de year," said Dune Runner.

"Don't encourage him," said Matt.

"So, what are you going to do?" asked Ratchet.

"Well, I think I'm overdue for a vacation. I haven't had one in 300 stellar cycles and considering the ordeal I've went. I really need to unwind my circuits, even though they technically aren't mine, but you get the idea."

Matt looked at Sari. "Does he have a mute or a slow-mo button? I can't understand half of what he's saying." he asked.

--

Meanwhile, the construction bots were hiding in the dockyard, near the still being repaired refinery. "What the spark was that?" said Long Haul

"I don't know, but I ain't goin' back to find out," said Hightower, "No amount of oil's worth that."

"Yeah," said Rollout, "We'll just find our own oil."

"Like what? What if those...spiders come back? AAAH!" he yelled spotting a regular spider that was enjoying the reaction.

"Well, well, what have we gots here?" said a voice. The three robots turned to see another robot. He was a lot shorter than any of them, most of his height coming from the two forklift prongs on his back. His coloration matched Hightower and Rollout's, except he had a purple symbol on his chest.

Hightower looked at the newcomer. "Who're you?" he asked.

The short bot smirked and said, "I'm your new boss, Dirt Boss!"

* * *

There's another chapter. And with it, we introduce three new Constructicons! By the way, in case you didn't pick it up, Hightower's modeled after Bender from Futurama and thus would sound just like him. The other two, I'm not sure about. All three of them have pictures of their robot and vehicle modes on my deviantART page. However, they do contain spoilers about what will happen in the next chapter, but you can kinda already guess that with Dirt Boss appearing. By the way, fans of Blurr and Wreck-Gar, don't worry. I'm planning on getting Blurr his own body and Wreck-Gar his spark back later in the story. But the next chapter's gonna have a lot Constructicon activity so you do not want to miss it. Until then, please review.


	5. Instruments of Construction

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 5: Instruments of Construction**

There were a couple of benefits to living in the 22nd century. Not only was the tech better and strife between countries weren't as frequent, but humanity had finally got their act together about the environment and managed to bring an end to global warming and ozone depletion. Which meant winters were colder and snow was more common.

The minus side of this, at least from Matt's point of view, was that it meant that Detroit had suffered a huge snowfall this year thanks to its location up north and there had been no money to winterize most of the Bladestorm's gear. That and his new draconic side meant he felt the cold alot more. "How d-do you put u-u-up with th-this every smegging year?" he said to Draco.

"S-s-simp-p-ple, I l-l-live in Haw-w-waii," said Draco, his four mouths chattering. Draco was not fond of snow at all, being cold-blooded and all.

"L-l-life.....sucks," muttered Matt. Chloe wasn't suffering as bad thanks to her dragon side being a little less dominant. "Oh, grow up. Anyone would think you'd been dipped in liquid nitrogen," she said with a grin.

"N-n-no, b-b-but I've been f-f-frozen in a b-b-block of ice," said Matt.

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Oh, grow up," she said, picking up a handful of snow and throwing it at the duo.

"Ah! It stings!" yelled Draco.

"He's like this every time we go somewhere snowy," said Chip.

Matt, despite being half-frozen himself, smirked at Draco's reaction. "Least we have a nice warm ship to go to."

"What? And miss out of the winter fun?" said Chip, "C'mon, the Autobots are going to have a snowball as combat practice and I wanna join in. Though I think I heard the spiderbots mentioning snow-based warfare as well."

"Erm...I was wondering why they went by with vials of acid..." said Matt. Everyone stopped as their minds all went to the right conclusion. "We got to stop them," said Matt.

Fortunately, the gang had the advantage of mobility, seeing how the snow outside was a foot and third deep, meaning the spiderbots wouldn't be able to cross it that easily. It also meant, after a short threat of removal of DVD rights, that the 'acid snow' was confiscated. "I really have no idea why they get these ideas," said Matt, tossing the last of the acid vials into the sewer.

"I'd be careful disposing that if I were you," said Chip, "That stuff's really effective."

"It'll be fine in water..." said Matt before a hail of snowballs, sent via spiderbot, pinned him to the far wall. "...Ow."

"Uh, I think I'll go ice skate for a bit before the big snowball fight," said Chip, "Good thing these pointy feet allows me to not require skates."

Matt managed to get out of the snow squish the spiderbots had given, wandering over to Draco, before remembering something that might help. He pulled out a small, heavily insulated bottle with a hazard symbol on it. "Yo Draco...try this," he said, offering it.

"Uh, Matt, you really think giving kr'ta to Draco is a good idea?" asked Chloe.

"Oh, c'mon," said Matt, "It's not like it's coffee."

Matt poured a bit into the cap and Chloe couldn't help noticing how a drop ate through a sewer cover. "Erm...ok...I'll be over there," she said before running for it

"Ah, what's she worrying about?" said Matt before handing the cap to Draco who gulped it down. Matt watched as Draco made a shrug before going rigid. Several wisps of smoke began to come out of his mouths. "Erm...Draco?" he said.

--

Chloe had her helmet over her eyes when she heard the explosion.

She walked back to find Draco lying half dazed on the ground, all the snow near him melted. She also found Matt who was stuck on the wall. It was the first time she ever found burns, lightning scorches, and frostbite on the same person at the same time, the plasma breath had no effect.

"Ow..." said Matt before falling face down into the snow...which sizzled.

--

Meanwhile, Chip had gone out to the ice rink. He found that Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, and Sari already there. "Looks like I'm not the only one who enjoys skating," said Chip as he got out onto the ice. There was a distant explosion and Chip muttered, "Matt," before carrying on.

Chip skated forward easily on the ice. "Hey guys," he said.

"Hey Chip," said Lilo, "I didn't know you skated."

"Well, I do better on ice than with roller skates," said Chip.

Sari skated by the group, doing quite well, though Chip noticed she appeared to be skating on energy skates. "Where did you get those?" asked Chip.

"They're a part of me," said Sari, "Being half Cybertronian and all." She skated in a small circle around Pleakley who watched her go until the ice circle beneath him fell through and he splashed into the water, leaving on his stocking cap up. Jumba skated forward and pulled him out by the cap, revealing he was in a cylinder of ice with a fish also in it staring at him.

Chloe walked into view, dragging the singed Matt before pushing him into the hole. A column of steam rose. "Don't ask," she said to Chip and Sari.

"Hey, watch this," said Chip. He skated rapidly around the pond before jumping up into the air. His body twirled around before he landed perfectly on one leg. Jumba held up a card that said 9.6 and put a card that said 10.0 in Pleakley's frozen hands.

Chloe clapped before Sari poked her. "Erm...your brother?" she said, pointing to the hole.

"Oh, right," said Chloe. She pulled Matt out, whose skin was currently blue.

"N-n-n-n-n-need w-w-w-w-w-warmth," he chattered. Suddenly, a gust of fire came from above and hit Matt. When the fire faded, Matt was completely dried and warmed. "Thanks, I need that," he said. A second fireball almost incinerated Chloe. The group looked up to see a robotic pterodactyl go overhead. "What the hell is that?" said Matt, diving behind a bench.

"That's one of the Dinobots," said Sari, "But why is he attacking us?"

"I think taking cover's the more important thing here," said Chip as he jumped behind a bush.

A fireball hit the frozen Pleakley in the back, melting the ice. "Phew...thanks for that...Draco?" he said seeing the Dinobot. "AAAAAAAH!" he screamed and ran for it.

Stitch quickly made several snowballs and started flinging them at the Dinobot. It didn't hurt it at all, but it was certainly distracting. The Dinobot turned to send a blast at Stitch only for a plasma and lightning blast hit him in the back. Again it had little effect except to make the bot angrier. The pterodactyl swung his head back and sent a flamethrower blast towards the Lynches, who got out of the way just in time.

"Ok, how do we stop that prehistoric toaster?" yelled Matt

"If it can stay still long enough, maybe I can-" started Sari before the pterodactyl suddenly flew off.

Matt watched. "Ok, it's never that easy," he said.

"Yeah, when a Dinobot stop attacking, it rarely stops," said Sari. Then she paused as she heard something ringing. She pulled her cell phone out and answered it. "Hello? Yes, yes I'm fine. I know, he attacked here too. I don't what's going. Ok, I'll see you later." She hung up and said, "That was Optimus, apparently our flying friend has been dive-bombing people all over Detroit."

"Great, that guy soaked up weapon fire like a sponge. How we gonna stop him?" said Matt.

"I think we'll have to go to Dinobot Island to see what's going on with the Dinobots," said Sari.

"Dinobots? You mean there are more mechanical creatures based off prehistoric Earth reptiles?" asked Jumba.

Sari nodded. "There are three of them, including that guy."

"Where did these guys come from?" asked Lilo.

"They used to be animatronic dinosaurs for Dino Drive, but then Megatron equipped them with weapons and the ability to transform. But then my Key brought them to life. They're normally not bad, but they're really territorial," said Sari.

"Looks like they've decided to expand their territory," said Chloe, prodding a burnt bench.

"I don't think so," said Sari, "Prowl says the Dinobots are peaceful when left alone. They barely ever come to the mainland."

"Then explain what just happened," said Matt in an annoyed tone of voice.

Sari was about to when she got another call on her cell phone. "Hello? Oh, Captain Fanzone. Yeah, I know, that flying lizard bot's causing some trouble? What? What? But I thought they were- Ok, I'll tell the others." She hung up and said, "There's a disturbance at the wharf."

"The Dinobots?" asked Chip.

"No, something about large green and purple robots taking construction supplies," said Sari.

"Oh great, 20 credits says it's those idiotic construction bots," said Matt.

"I was thinking the same thing," said Sari, "But since the roads are snowed in, the Autobots won't be able to make it there in time. We'll have to go without them."

Matt shrugged. "I'll make a call. We can ride in style."

--

A few minutes later, the 'ride' was several tanks and APC's from the gang's own camp. "Like I said, we're going in style," said Matt, smugly.

As the gang was climbing into one, Sari said sarcastically, "Gee, Matt, you ever hear of overkill?"

"Erm...no...I've met creatures the size of a small tanker with the attitude of a rabid tiger with toothache. No, I don't think this is overkill," said Matt.

When they got to the dock, it was pretty easy to tell where the disturbance was coming from, seeing all the workers running in the opposite direction. "Hmm, least they're easy to find," said Matt, opening the hatch to peer out.

The other also looked out and easily spotted the bulking image of Rollout who was apparently looking through some crates. His back was turned so he didn't see them. "So tempting," said Matt, waving at the driver to aim. The driver aimed the tank's cannon at Rollout's back. Seeing how it was so broad, it didn't seem likely that he would miss. Matt, unable to resist called, "YOO HOO! TOASTER BRAIN!"

Before Rollout could respond, the driver fired and the shell hit Rollout in the middle of his back. "Yes! Bull's-eye!" yelled Matt. But then the smoke cleared, revealing Rollout with no damage at all. Then he turned around to glare at them, allowing them to see the Decepticon insignia that was now on his chest. "Oh boy," said Matt.

"Hey, Hightower, it's those puny organics again," said Rollout. Hightower was in vehicle mode, picking up crates and putting them on a barge. He transformed into robot mode, allowing the gang to see that he had a Decepticon insignia on his chest now too.

"Oh, not you too," said Matt, gloomily.

"Say, you're right," said Hightower, "Didn't they nearly lead us into a deathtrap?"

"That's how I remember it," said Rollout.

"Yeah, me too, let's teach them a lesson," said Hightower. Rollout nodded and picked up a crate. He hurled it towards the tank. Matt ducked back into the hatch as the crate smashed on the tank. The other two fired with a little more success at Rollout.

Then Hightower extended the bucket arm on his back as well as the robotic arms attacked to the bucket. They reached for the nearest APC and ripped off the hood. The robotic hands quickly switched around all the controls and wiring. The pilots jumped out and ran for it while Matt peered out again. "HEY! THOSE ARE EXPENSIVE!"

Hightower scoffed and said, "Bite my shiny metal-"

"Hey!" shouted Chloe, "Watch your mouth! There are children present!"

Hightower turned to swat her and found out the hard way his bucket arm was a marvelous lightning rod.

Rollout was stomping towards the tanks, holding up his arms to protect his face from the blasts. "Long Haul! Get that overgrown chameleon out here!"

"Long Haul?" asked Lilo. She glanced towards the barge to see Long Haul opening up a cage. His coloring had changed a lot. His yellow was now lime green, his purplish-grey was now purple, his optics and headlights were now red, and he had a Decepticon insignia on his chest too.

"What the hell happened to him?" said Matt, manipulating a plasma blast to fly round Rollout's cover and hit him in the side.

"Ow! Why you little-" growled Rollout. He lifted up one of his legs and the foot extended into a tamper. He started slamming it on the ground, causing large shockwaves.

Matt and the others were knocked over. "Where are the spiderbots when you need them?" he said and was shocked as Rollout stopped.

"Spiderbots? WHERE?" yelled Rollout, cringing.

"Hmm, I'll have to inquire about that later," muttered Matt.

At that point, Long Haul had gotten the cage's lock open. "Sorry about this," he said as he opened the door. A mechanical triceratops barreled out and charged towards the gang, roaring loudly.

"Oh hell no," said Matt, turning dragon to fly over the charging Dinobot, grabbing some of the gang as he did.

The triceratops couldn't turn around that quickly when charging, so he had to make a wide U-turn, smashing several tanks and APCs that were in his path.

"Oh for heaven's sake," moaned Matt, putting the others down and turning back.

"Snarl! No! Wait! It's me, Sari! You know, your old teammate?" called Sari. Snarl seemed to pause for a moment, but then pain seemed to rack his body and he charged again.

Matt swooped down and grabbed her. "I don't think he's home right now," he said.

Hightower tossed the last of the crates onto the barge. "We got what we came for!" he called, "Cheese it!"

The two Constructicons and their 'pet' fled back to the barge, dodging the hail of EM shells from the tanks before pushing off. "AND DON'T COME BACK!" yelled Matt angrily.

"Guys, we need to go to Dinobot Island," said Sari.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I think the cold's numbed my hearing," said Pleakley, "I thought you said to go to the island with GIANT CONSTRUCTION ROBOTS AND FIRE-BREATHING MECHANICAL DINOSAURS!"

"She did," said Chloe simply

"I don't know about the pteranodon, but I know Snarl wouldn't attack without a good reason. Scrapper did a good job with training him and..." Sari trailed off. "Wait, those guys were heading to Dinobot Island, right?" she asked.

"I think so, dunno where the island is," said Matt with a shrug, turning back to human.

"Who is this Scrapper of which you speak of?" asked Jumba.

"He's another Constructicon," said Sari, "And if my guess about Snarl and his pal are right, there's more than just those guys out there."

"Great...HOW MANY OF THESE TIN CAN MANIACS ARE THERE?" snapped Matt.

"Decepticons in general? I haven't a clue. Constructicons specifically? Currently six," said Sari.

"Oh good, I vote we nuke them till they glow then bomb em in the dark," said Matt, nastily. The tanks had been brand new.

"No, I think we'll need to settle this in person," said Sari, "The Autobots won't be able to get here for 20 minutes at the current road condition. Don't you have any boats or something?"

"We got dropships..." said Matt, before looking at the wrecked tanks. "But they are in a limited amount...mmph," he said before Chloe gagged him.

"I'll call a few dropships," said Chloe.

"Better make it one," said Sari, "If the Dinobots spot us, they'll blow us out of the sky. Or could you two carry us there?"

Matt looked at Jumba. "Not twice, my spine still hurts from last time with Jumba," said Matt.

"See, I told you should be cutting back on the snacking," said Pleakley.

Jumba huffed and said, "One-eyed roommate is not the boss of me."

"EVERYONE SHUT UP!!!" yelled Matt, before taking a few breaths. "Ok..." he said walking over to one of the crates that the Constructicons had been after and pulling out a piece of technology. "These guys don't look like they have the IQ for this," he said.

"Hmm, looks like an energy distribution diode," said Chip, "That could spread a generator's power through an entire mansion."

"Or a fortress," said Lilo.

"What kind of stuff is on Dinobot island?" said Matt in an 'about to go nuts' cheerful tone of voice

"Well, there used to be an abandoned military testing facility," said Sari, "Of course, that's been transwarped who knows where, along with a big chunk of the island."

"How do we know it's all gone? I remember that base we found in New York. Was a few miles across," said Matt.

"Good point," said Sari, "If they found some of the leftover weapons..." She paused and said, "Guys, Detroit's gonna be in big trouble if we don't head over there. Something tells me this only the beginning."

"Ok, let's go...which way?" said Matt.

--

Matt had refused to carry Jumba in the end, having a pelican dropship ferry him and Pleakley. Matt was piloting the ship with Chloe as co-pilot. Lilo, Stitch, and Chip were seated in the back. Sari was outside in her robot mode and flying her jetpack.

Matt put a comm headset on. "You said there were three Dinobots. Who's the third one?" he said.

"Oh, right, I should have told you about that," said Sari, using her comlink. "The third one's Grimlock. He's the Dinobot leader."

"Oh great, what does he turn into?" asked Matt, "A T-Rex?"

"A mechanical fire-breathing one, yes," replied Sari.

Matt stared at the comlink. "I'm sorry...I thought you said I was right…" he said in a weak voice.

"I did. It would make sense for him to be lizard. Doesn't Tyrannosaurus Rex mean 'king of tyrant lizards'?"

"Heh...hehehe..." giggled Matt.

Chloe took the comm off him. "Great...anything else? A giant mutant wasp robot, maybe?" she asked.

"No, apparently that guy disappeared with that creepy spider girl along with the missing chunk of the island," said Sari.

Matt, who had been listening in, started laughing insanely. "Next it'll be undead...ALWAYS THE GODDAMN UNDEAD!!! HAHAHA!" he said till Chloe disconnected his commset.

Very soon afterwards, the group spotted the island. It looked like it once was shaped like a crescent, but there was a large circular chunk missing.

"Hmm...the explosion did that?" said Matt, who had calmed down.

"Yep, warped the whole thing somewhere else," said Sari, "Bulkhead thinks it couldn't have left Earth, but it's not anywhere near Detroit."

"Well, we're gonna land on the beach..." said Matt, steering the dropship down.

Suddenly, there was a loud squawk. "Prehistoric bird bot at 9 o'clock!" called Chip.

Matt looked ahead to see the pterodactyl bearing down on the dropship. "SMEGGING HELL!" he yelled and pulled hard to the left. The dropship tried to get out of the way, but the pteranodon whacked the side of it, sending into a spin. Matt calmly activated the intercom and said, "Attention passengers, this is Captain Lynch speaking. We're experiencing turbulence and attacking robots right now so discomfort is normal. Oh, and by the way, WE'RE GONNA CRASH!!!"

Matt turned off the intercom just as Pleakley started to scream. The dropship span into the trees, smashing a few that might have broken a normal ship but the pelican was military issue and had combat armor. It slid to a stop in a snow drift. "Thank you for flying Air-Merc, have a nice day," gibbered Matt.

The small group shakily got out of the dropship. "Ugh, it is good thing Jumba has strong stomach," groaned Jumba.

"Hey, where's Sari?" asked Lilo.

There was a cry from above and a few seconds later, a snow angel-shaped hole appeared in another snowdrift. "There she is," said Stitch.

Matt wandered over to the hole. "So...I'm guessing we're in the right place," he said.

Sari got out of the hole and said, "Yeah, we're here."

Suddenly, the ground started shaking. "Oh goody, the welcoming committee," said Chloe.

Just then, a large mechanical T-Rex stomped towards them. It glared at them and said, "Intruders! Grimlock destroy puny humans!"

Matt glared as a fireball shot at him. It burst on a plasma shield a foot from him. "Now that's just rude," he said.

Stitch jumped in front and said, "Hacka naga mako."

Grimlock looked down at Stitch and said, "Blue doggy challenge Grimlock? Grimlock smash blue doggy!" Then in a flurry of movement, the T-Rex transformed into a large robot with a sword that looked like it was made of igneous rock in his hand. Said sword started burning as he swung down at Stitch.

Matt watched as Stitch tried the old 'catch the blade' trick and burnt his paws. "Jumba? How fireproof is stitch?" said Matt in an inquisitive voice.

"6-2-6 can survive in conditions of extremely high temperatures," said Jumba, "He can even withstand emersion in lava."

"What about flaming swords of death?" said Chloe.

"Hmm, don't recall ever meeting anyone with a fiery sword," said Jumba.

Matt pointed. "Now's your chance," he said in a dark voice.

"Um, while they're settling their differences," said Pleakley, "I think I'll wait over here where it's safe." Just then, the other two Dinobots appeared behind them in their robot modes.

Matt turned to see the others, a plasma ball in his hand and saw the symbols on the newcomers. "Sari, look," he said in a low voice, pointing out the Autobot logo.

"Huh, you know, I wondered why they had those too," said Sari, "But I'm more concerned about what's on their foreheads." Matt looked again to notice rather out-of-place round red devices on their foreheads.

"Hmm...those look newer," said Chip.

"Bulkhead told me about those things. They take over a robot's body," said Sari, "If the Dinobots are being controlled by those, it can only mean one thing." Before Sari could tell it, globs of wet cement shot out of nowhere and hit each member of the gang. Before they could get out, it solidified into solid stone.

Matt said a rude word in Draconic. "Who did that?" he said, looking around

"My guess, the first three Constructicons," said Sari.

Just then, three green and purple robots stepped into the clearing. One of looked like his alternate form was an excavator, another looked he'd transform into a cement-mixing bulldozer of some kind. The third one, who was much shorter, had a pair of forklift prongs on his back so Matt could guess what he turned into. "You got that right, girly," said the short one, "I'm the boss around here, Dirt Boss!"

"Oh look, it's Napoleon's little robot brother," Matt said, nastily.

Dirt Boss growled in annoyance and said, "Mixmaster, paste his mouth shut!"

The cement mixer sighed and said, "Yes, sir." Another fire from his cement cannon and Matt was effectively gagged.

The gag glowed before exploding out. Matt's smirked, a few flicks of plssma fire around his mouth. "Nice try, peewee...DON'T MAKE ME SING!"

"This guy's a real fruit loop," said Dirt Boss, "Scrapper, throw them in the can!"

"Yes sir," sighed the excavator bot as he picked up the partially-petrified gang.

Matt glared and took a deep breath. A nanosecond later, Dirt Boss thought his audio system was exploding.

"What the slag is that noise?" yelled Dirt Boss.

"It's coming from this guy's mouth!" shouted Scrapper.

"It couldn't be! That's not human!" shouted Mixmaster.

Matt stopped. "And I'm only just getting warmed up. I haven't even got to the chorus yet...and a 1, 2, 3...sjajdhsd!" The silencing shot actually came from Chloe who had a manic look on her face.

Dirt Boss shook his head (well, upper torso) and said, "Mixmaster, soon as we get back, mix up a gag that he can't blast off."

The gang were carried through the forest to a large defense fortress. Matt, if he had still been conscious, would have pointed out the heavy plasma cannons being made.

They were carried inside, where the conscious members of the gangs noticed Long Haul, Hightower, and Rollout working on building up the insides of the fortress.

Matt opened his eyes. "What hit me?" he said

"I did," said Chloe, "And I'll do it again if you trying that off-key warbling again."

Matt sighed. "Well, it got him to put us somewhere unguarded, right? Oh crap," he said seeing the three Constructicons.

Hightower paused as he used his last bolt. "Hey, Long Haul, get me some more bolts," he called.

"And bring me some more of that oil," said Rollout.

Long Haul gave them annoyed looks and muttered, "Get this, bring that, I didn't join this group to be a dump truck, you know."

Dirt Boss glared. "You do as you're TOLD!" he yelled.

Long Haul flinched and said, "Right away, boss." He grabbed a bag of bolts and a barrel of oil and brought them to the other two.

"Hey, tiny, your people skills need work," said Matt.

"Who needs people skills? Soon I'll have this whole city under my servo," said Dirt Boss.

"Oh...you're making a shrink ray," said Matt, rudely

"Nah, that'd never work," said Dirt Boss, "It's pretty simple. First off, we have them metal lizards get them humans worried for their lives and lands. Of course, we'll call them off, for a price."

"What? A pair of platform shoes?" asked Matt.

Dirt Boss glared at Matt and said, "I may be smaller than these guys, but I'm bigger than you. So shut your piehole or else!"

"Oh no, I'm shaking in my combat boots," said Matt in a sarcastic voice.

Dirt Boss turned to Rollout and said, "Yo, big boy, how about you stomp that guy into a pancake?"

"Do it and I'll start singing again," said Matt, simply

"Oh yeah? I doubt you could make any noise with a pair of punctured lungs," said Dirt Boss. Rollout cracked his fingers in anticipation.

Matt sighed. "I can wait..." he said simply, before saying to Rollout, "Say, I coulda sworn I saw a spiderbot…" making the Constructicon look nervous.

"He's bluffing," scoffed Dirt Boss, "There ain't any spiderbots on this island."

"You haven't seen them, boss," said Rollout, "They're tiny, but they can be so scary."

Dirt Boss rolled his optics and said, "You're in no condition to guard." He pointed at Mixmaster, Scrapper, and Long Haul and said, "You, you, and you! Put them in a cell and make sure they don't do anything funny. We'll bury them in a foundation later."

"They turn up when you least expect it. The best way to know they're chasing you is to turn around and see nothing there," laughed Matt, his eyes spinning in a disturbing way.

Dirt Boss turned to Mixmaster and said, "Feel free to bury this joker up to his chin in cement. We'll see how much he laughs in stone."

Matt glared. "If you do, I'll sing," he said in a dangerous voice.

"On second thought, make it up to his nostrils," said Dirt Boss. The three Constructicons took the gang and walked off towards the holding area.

--

Matt sadly was good on his threat. By the time he had been got to the cell, the Constructicons looked an inch from insanity. "I did warn him. Why do you work for an absolute jerk like him?" said Matt.

"Well, we didn't want to at first," said Scrapper, "But then he made me hit myself with those crazy mind-screws."

"Of course, when he wanted to take all the oil in Detroit, we were interested," said Mixmaster, "But I would have preferred if we could have been allowed to actually drink it."

"You do realize he's insane. Believe me, I know insane," said Matt.

Chloe nodded. "He'll drop you like a bad habit once you're no longer worth anything."

"Yeah, I sorta got that hint when he was going to have Bulkhead light that oil tank, with me stuck to him," said Mixmaster.

"Then he made us climb on top of that tank when it was gonna blow," said Scrapper, "I don't even know why he wanted us to do that."

"It would seem your foreman was wanting to dispose of you so he would have sole control over city's oil," said Jumba, "Such a brilliant evil scheme, but lethal disposing is not to my liking."

"Think, once you've built his giant fortress, I bet you'll be the first ammunition," said Sari.

The two senior Constructicons started to look doubtful when Lilo addressed the newer addition. "And you, Long Haul, how can you stand working for those guys? They do nothing but push you around," she said.

Long haul said in a small voice, "I'm not as big as they are. They'd just slag me."

"So you let yourself be bossed around by a guy who's smaller than you," said Chloe, sounding disappointed.

"In his defense, Dirt Boss does have a good grip on those other two," said Pleakley, "He probably won't get rid of them."

"Yeah right, I can hear the bolt cutters sharpening now," said Matt.

"By the way, how did you and those other two get your insignias?" asked Chip.

"Dirt Boss did it," said Long Haul, "He had these brand things and he used them on our chests. You know, the odd thing was it hurt me, but Rollout and Hightower didn't mind at all. It didn't even change their coloring like it did with me."

"Hmm...I heard about that, only the Decepticon top dogs can do that," said Matt.

"Well, Dirt Boss used to be a Headmaster unit that Megatron controlled," said Sari, "Maybe it was influenced by him?"

"That works," said Matt.

Sari looked over. "You're not surprised?" she said.

Chloe answered, "After you've spent a week on our crew, nothing'll surprise you."

"You know, you three are much better than those other guys," said Chip, "You don't have to be pushed around by Dirt Boss. Just stand up to him."

The three Constructicons looked thoughtful and Sari added, "I'm pretty sure you don't like Dirt Boss controlling Snarl, right Scrapper?"

Matt said, "What about Snarl?"

Sari said, "He's the Dinobot that Scrapper tamed."

Matt looked straight ahead and giggled. "Obviously...its perfectly logical...happens all the time...hehehe." he gibbered

"Right, seriously, Dirt Boss is totally going against union rules," said Chip.

Long Haul looked interested and asked, "What's a union?"

"Well...a union's a group formed by workers to make sure they get good working conditions and....WOW!" said Chip as the wall exploded in.

When the cloud of dust cleared, Bulkhead was standing there, reeling back the wrecking ball he used to smash apart the wall. "I thought I'd find you guys down here," said Bulkhead.

"That's nice...GET US OUTTA HERE!!" yelled Matt, clearly losing it.

Bulkhead nodded and started swinging his wrecking ball around. "Hey, no need to get all rough," said Scrapper. He unlocked the cell doors and let the gang out.

"Yeah, guard duty's for drones," said Mixmaster.

Matt glared then smirked. "Say...if you went for a break, it wouldn't be your fault if we escaped. Nobody could blame you," he said in a voice that could have been sold at $50 a barrel.

"Yeah, but then Dirt Boss would find out and then start yelling at us and it'll probably be a week of no free will," said Mixmaster.

"You don't have to work for him," said Bulkhead, "There are a lot of nice bots on the Autobot side. You could join us."

"Plus you get perks, like how the spiderbots won't turn you inside out. Definitely a perk," said Matt.

"Eh, I don't know," said Long Haul, "Being an Autobot sounds like we'll have to do more fighting. I'm not build for combat."

"Surely there is stuff Detroit needs fixing," said Chloe, making 'play along' motions at the others.

"Sure, Dad could always use some more workers," said Sari.

"You could easily find the one place you belong," said Lilo.

"In fact, you don't have to settle for Detroit," said Chip, "I'm pretty sure there's plenty of good employment for construction bots like yourself in Nullspace," said Chip.

Matt and Chloe's faces set. "Maybe not that...but on earth there's plenty to do," said Matt.

Chloe whispered to Sari, "Especially right after Matt's been here."

The three of them still looked doubtful. "Well at least whoever you would be working for would treat you with more respect than Dirt Boss," said Pleakley, "They might even pay you in oil."

This appeared to be the cincher. "Well, why didn't ya say so first?" said the Constructicon trio.

"So you're switching sides?" asked Bulkhead happily.

"Uh, regarding the stamp-wearing thing, I don't know," said Mixmaster.

"But we ain't takin' any more slag from shorty," said Scrapper.

"Hmm...I wish all our enemies could be talked down so easily," said Matt.

"By the way, where are the others?" asked Sari.

"Fighting the Dinobots," said Bulkhead, "Guess Dirt Boss has been controlling them the whole time."

"Let's go blast Robo-shorty," said Matt, in a happy voice.

--

The group went outside the holding area to see the battle going on. Apparently, the Dinobots were really good at fighting, as the Autobots had their hands full keeping them off. Of course, Rollout and Hightower weren't much easier. Matt watched, sending a random shot or two into it.

An engine could be heard in the background. Mixmaster and Scrapper turned to see a red dune buggy headed for them. "Hey, we're getting some exotic sights," said Mixmaster.

"Hey baby, what brings you to Detroit?" said Scrapper.

But then the dune buggy transformed into Dune Runner who asked, "What did you call me?"

Matt, Chloe and Sari couldn't help bot snigger at Mixmaster's and Scrapper's faces.

"Ooh, sorry man, didn't realize you were another bot," said Scrapper sheepishly.

"Oh, this is so wrong," groaned Mixmaster.

"But somehow, it's still funny," laughed Matt.

"Ok, how about we pretend this moment never happened?" said Long Haul.

"I'll second that," said Scrapper.

"Ditto," said Mixmaster.

"Of course, it never happened," said Matt, saving his wristcomp's camera footage.

Then Dirt Boss noticed Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Long Haul. "Hey! What are you three mooks doin' standin' there? Get rid of these bozos!" he yelled.

Mixmaster spoke first, "I don't think so, Dirt Boss. We're quittin' to form a...what was it again?" he said turning to Chip.

"A union," said Chip dully.

"Yeah, one of those," said Scrapper.

Dirt Boss glared at them and said, "I think you're forgettin' whose boss around here."

Dirt Boss aimed his cerebro-shell gun at the three Constructicons who took a step back in worry...till a glob of yellow plasma splatted over it. Matt lowered his hand as Dirt Boss tried to get the overloading plasma, being covered in soot as it exploded. "Sticky plasma, never leave home without it," said Matt with a smirk.

Dirt Boss growled and said to his minions, "You lizard heads keep them goody two-servos busy. Rollout, Hightower, we're gonna show these two there's no quitin' the Constructicons."

The three Dinobots turned away from the Autobots and started heading for the group. "Oh goody...a re-enactment of Jurassic Park," said Matt, igniting two plasma orbs in his hands.

Meanwhile, Rollout was stomping towards Mixmaster. "I've had enough with workin' with you, you overgrown grease tub," said Mixmaster as he shot cement at Rollout's feet. Rollout merely glanced at them before continuing towards Mixmaster, ripping the floor away as he went.

Matt got a grin and said to Mixmaster. "Can you do custom shapes?" he said.

"Eh, I guess, why?" asked Mixmaster.

"Just shoot out something shaped like a robotic spider," said Matt, "Trust me." Mixmaster shrugged and the mixing drum in his chest started to churn. Just as Rollout was getting within striking range, the mixing drum shot out a concrete statue of a spiderbot.

The fake bot landed on Rollouts face. The reaction was impressive. Rollout crossed his eyes to look at the fake bot and let out a high pitched scream before trying to run for it. He ran straight into one of the fortress support columns and was knocked into stasis lock.

But then Hightower went for Scrapper. "You ain't chickenin' out on us that easy," said Hightower.

"Better than not doin' what I want," said Scrapper as he morphed his hands into drills. He was about to charge Hightower when Hightower's fingers converted into screwdrivers and he quickly detached Scrapper's right arm.

He then made a rather unfortunate error. He headed for Chip next. "Hah...you think you can take me?" he said.

"Hmm, probably," said Chip, sending a viral blast into Hightower's left arm.

"Hey, what are you-" started Hightower before it suddenly started poking him in the eyes against his will.

Matt watched as the virus spread to Hightower's other arm which then punched its owner in the face. "Nothing like entertainment," he said before hearing Dirt Boss behind him.

"I'm gonna mash you, you little pain."

Matt turned and said, "Ha, like you could even stick your leg high enough to stomp on me." But then Dirt Boss kicked Matt with a surprising amount of strength, causing Matt to fly all the way across the room and slam into a wall. Matt made a funny noise and slowly came loose from the wall with a sucking noise. "Damn...he's got a mean kick..." he rasped before falling to the floor.

Dirt Boss smirked till he heard a roar behind him and turned to be nose to nose with Chloe in dragon form. "I don't like pee wee bullies," she hissed before shocking him into the wall above Matt. Sadly he then landed on Matt.

--

Meanwhile, the scuffle was being watching from the ceiling. Mantichrome had picked up a lot of Allspark energy here and had come to investigate. The battle was pretty interesting so far, especially with Matt getting hurt. He noticed the feuding Constructicons and said, "It's so sad when a team starts fighting among themselves. Perhaps I should help...end it."

--

Chloe picked up Dirt Boss and winced as she spotted her brother stuck to the front. She peeled her brother off. "Revenge..." said Matt weakly before Chloe put him gently down. Matt was in a good position to see Mantichrome, sadly he was still out of breath from being flattened twice. "Nti...nti…" he panted, pointing

"Take it easy Matt," said Chloe, "Just wait till you've gotten your breath back." But she was distracted by the sound of Grimlock whacking a crouching Long Haul's back with his sword.

Matt continued to point while Mantichrome glared at him.

Then Chloe turned around and said, "Ok, it's time to shut these troublemakers down."

"I couldn't agree more," said a voice from above. Chloe looked up to see Mantichrome flying down and landing on Rollout's chest. With a flash of light, Mantichrome's Allspark Extractor removed Rollout's fragment.

"What the slag is that?" asked Scrapper.

"You're about to find out," said Mantichrome before leaping over to Scrapper and using the Extractor on him.

When Scrapper's body fell to the floor, Mixmaster yelled, "Hey! What did you with my pal?"

"The same thing I'm about to do," said Mantichrome before taking Mixmaster's fragment.

Hightower and Long Haul recognized Mantichrome from before and tried to run away. Hightower couldn't transform since Chip's arms made his arms out of control. Mantichrome was able to attack and drain his fragment easily. Mantichrome attacked Long Haul before he could transform, finally getting to Dirt Boss. "Who do you think you are? I'm Dirt...Booooosssss," he said, his voice lagging when Mantichrome took the Constructicon's Allspark fragment.

"Well, well, six fragments today, my lucky star must be shining bright," said Mantichrome, "Catch you twerps later." He flew off before anyone could stop him.

The only good point that came from Dirt Boss's shut down was that it shut down the control implants in the Dinobots.

Grimlock shook his head as the cerebro shell fell out. "Me Grimlock have big headache," he moaned.

Matt picked up the cerebro shell and incinerated it. "Mantichrome's really started to piss me off," he muttered.

Bulkhead stood sadly over the sparkless shells of Mixmaster and Scrapper. "These guys were my friends," he said, "They didn't always do the right thing, but they weren't really bad."

"I'm sorry, Bulkhead," said Optimus, "I wish we could have done something."

"We will. If Mantichrome turns up again, he's going offline...permanently," said Chloe coldly.

"Well, I suppose we need to get to work disposing this scrap," said Ratchet as he tried to use his magnetism to move Rollout's shell, to little success

"Not so fast," said Chip, "I don't think these bodies should be disposed of."

The others looked at Chip. "What are you planning, Chip?" Matt said.

"I think there was a reason they were brought to life," said Chip, "I don't think it was some random fluke, I think the Allspark wanted them to come into being. They have so much potential that I can't just throw it away. I was thinking I could... restore them, you know, make them like they were before they were Decepticons."

"Uh, Dirt Boss was always a Decepticon," said Bulkhead.

"Yes, he's going to be trickier to change," said Chip.

Matt gave Chip a suspicious look and said, "You know mind alteration's illegal, right?"

Chip glared at Matt and said, "Like I'd ever sink that low. I'm just going to remove their Decepticon insignias. That should take out a lot of their negative traits, I think."

"That won't be easy," said Optimus, "I've read that a Decepticon's branding goes all the way to the spark. It's not that easy to remove."

"Which is why it is an advantage that they don't have sparks right now," said Chip.

"You really think you could make them good again?" asked Bulkhead.

"Well, they were never Autobots so I can't make them really 'good' again," said Chip, "And don't ask me to install you guys' insignia on them. I won't force them to become good."

"I don't think it'll work," said Bumblebee, "Those guys were pretty rude to begin with."

"Besides, dead bots don't change their stripes," said Ratchet.

"The Dinobots aren't exactly 'good' themselves, despite wearing the Autobrand," said Prowl, "If their behavior is not governed by their technical allegiance, then I think the same applies to the Constructicons."

Matt looked at the three Dinobots who were fighting each other. "Talking of which, what about the three Jurassic Stooges? These guys are a danger to everything they meet."

"The Dinobots are only a threat when they're territory is invaded," said Prowl, "They'll be find if we leave them on this island."

"I still say they ought to make up for attacking us," said Chloe.

"Yeah, for all we know the damage they caused will give the military a reason to blow this place to bits, them included. They need some good PR," said Matt.

Lilo thought for a moment and said, "I think I know a way they could be useful."

--

A while later...

Matt watched as Snarl went by, blasting a snowdrift in the road with his fire breath. "Lilo, I gotta hand it to you, this is a 'hot' idea," he said. Suddenly, a snowball hit Matt in the back of the head. "OW! Who threw that?" demanded Matt, turning around. His suspicions immediately fell on Jumba and the experiments who were trying to look innocent. Matt glared. "Oh that's it, come here," he said and was immediately buried under a blast of snowballs. "Extra limbs is cheating!" he said from under the pile of snow.

Chloe laughed and said, "You won't be able to bury me that-" She was cut off when a huge snowball hit her and buried her.

"Erm, you think I should have told her 'head's up'?" asked Bulkhead.

"As the humans say, 'All's fair in love and war'," said Bumblebee, "Whatever that means."

Chloe glared and turned dragon, picking up a pickup and using the back to scoop up a load of snow. Matt peered out and sighed. "Jumba, do you know the number to send repair bill payments to?" he asked.

Chloe tossed the snow towards Bulkhead, who was able to dodge aside. The snow landed in Grimlock's face. The T-Rex growled and said, "Me Grimlock not like snow. Me Grimlock fry snow thrower!" He started chasing after Chloe, roaring loudly.

Matt watched and looked at Sari. "You know...this is just a normal day," he said before planting his face in the snow.

* * *

There's another chapter. Sorry it took so long to put up. I've got a lot of things to work on like other stories and college work. There's something I forgot to mention last chapter. Mantichrome's Allspark Extractor is the same as the spark extractors used in Beast Machines, only they're designed to extract Allspark fragments instead of sparks. By the way, I'm not planning on having the Constructicons remain offline. They'll be brought back to life around the same time as Wreck-Gar later in the story. Anyhow, the next chapter will be up very soon, I'm not sure if it'll be this weekend or not, but it won't take nearly as long a wait as this chapter. Please review.


	6. Lessons of the Past, pt 1

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 6: Lessons of the Past, pt 1**

It had been a couple weeks after the incident with the Constructicons. During that time, Bulkhead and Professor Sumdac finished building their space bridge. Coincidentally, Optimus got a distress call from Sentinel Prime and used the space bridge to warp the Elite Guard's ship. The problem there was solved, excepting the escapes of Lugnut and Swindle. Matt and the gang, recognizing a timeline event, had kept a low profile as best they could.

However, during this, Matt had found out that Lilo's school work had begin to suffer thanks to her flying with the gang. This had been the real reason for Jumba and Pleakley's arrival on the Bladestorm. This had also presented a problem. It turns that when it comes to sitting still in a classroom, Lilo's experiment instincts could not be easily overcome. Thus leading to several pranks, one involving hanging the 'teacher' from the ceiling with toilet paper.

Matt, not wanting to get caught up in the crossfire...or the toilet paper had signed out a combat cycle and gone for a spin in downtown Detroit. In fact, he was currently on the comm to Pleakley. "So...how is it going?" he said.

"Not very good," said Pleakley, "I am not liking that look NegaMorph's niece is giving me. She won't try to prank me, will she?"

"Wait, you got Megan and Gary in on your little warzone?" said Matt with a grin, not noticing a muscle car drive out a road leading from the warehouse district and start tailing him.

"Well, we were discussing education and then they got brought up. NegaMorph felt they ought to be given an education too, even if they're mostly magical. I'm just kinda nervous that... Wait, is that a magic wand?" Pleakley's scream was cut off by the comlink terminating.

Matt watched as the comm screen turned back into a wingmirror, revealing the muscle car nearly on him. "WHAT THE...?" he said, swerving. "HEY, WATCH IT ASSHOLE!" he yelled before a readout on the cycle's comp got his attention. "No lifesigns?" he said

Suddenly, the exposed engine block on the muscle car lifted up slightly and a pair of blaster barrels popped out. They send a yellow wave of energy over Matt's ride, causing everything to shut down. Matt managed to dive off before the cycle wiped out. He transformed to his half-dragon form, using the claws on his feet to brake. "I had a feeling you'd turn up," he said, turning back to human.

"Too bad, I would have loved to see the surprise on your face," said the muscle car before it transformed into a robot with differently colored limbs and a skull-like face. "The name's Lockdown. You've got a pretty hefty bounty on your head, ghost pilot. And I intend to collect."

Matt pulled out his ion blade in one hand and transformed his other. "So you're the murdering scumbag who killed my friends. You didn't even have the decency to kill Dante. You just stole his mech," he said in a level voice.

"Oh, I stole more than just his mech," said Lockdown, "That's why I'm bringing you in alive."

"I'm not a robot. I'm not even fully human. You're not taking me in dead or alive," said Matt nastily

"I've handled organics before," said Lockdown as he pulled out a small green ball, "Think fast." He tossed it towards Matt.

Matt grabbed it and crushed it. "Nice try but you're...you're..." he said, blinking rapidly. The world was spinning.

Lockdown smirked. "Isotone 12, most powerful organic sedative in the universe, good for any species," he said, his voice echoing.

Matt staggered off, turning his comm on. "Guys...help…" he said before falling forward.

To Lockdown's surprise, Matt's body shifted to his dragon from when he lost consciousness. "Hmm, you ghost pilots come in all varieties," he said, "Doesn't looked that different from a Wyrmlach. He shouldn't be too much trouble." He grabbed Matt and shifted into vehicle mode before driving off, with Matt unconscious in the backseat.

--

Meanwhile, Chloe was heading for the impromptu schoolroom set up in one of the defense bunkers in their base. She needed help, fast.

Chloe quickly entered the 'classroom' and said, "Guys, we've got a problem..." Her voice trailed off when she spotted Pleakley inside the clock on the wall, his arms serving as the hour and minute hands.

"Ok...ten seconds...WHAT HAPPENED?" she yelled, partially using her dragon voice.

"Well, Pleakley said he had plenty of time on his hands to teach about Earth Studies," said Megan.

Chloe rubbed her forehead and muttered, "Back when I was in school, we just put tacks on the teacher's chair. Where's Sari? She came in here 30 minutes ago and WARDEN said she didn't leave. I need her to call the Autobots."

"She's playing cards with the spiderbots," said Gary, "But I'm not certain the spiderbots are playing fairly or not."

WARDEN's hologram appeared. "Ma'am, we have an emergency. An unknown model of assault air unit has entered Earth airspace," he said calmly

"Oh great, not more Decepticons," groaned Chloe, "Can you tell me where it is?"

"It is approaching Detroit airspace, E.T.A. to contact is 20 minutes. I have also tracked the captain's signal, should I contact Sumdac Tower for reinforcements?" said WARDEN.

"Yes, you definitely should," said Chloe. WARDEN terminated the link. Chloe groaned and said, "I so do not want to deal with this. You three, you're coming with me. But first, change Pleakley back. I don't think anyone would want to be a timepiece."

--

Matt came too in an energy cell. He concentrated to turn back to human before realizing he still had a body to turn human. "Ok...why am I still alive?" he said.

"It's real simple," said Lockdown, "Megatron put a bounty on any ghost pilot that I can either slag or bring to him to slag. But I got another contract that requires you to be alive. It's a double bounty."

"Oh...great," said Matt, in a bored voice, looking around at the room. Cybertronian personal weapon mods were all over the place. "Wow...a Cybertronian chop-shop," he said.

"Like my trophies?" said Lockdown, "I've picked up quite a collection over the eons. Of course, the original EMP blaster I had got nabbed back by the medibot, but I got a replacement. You know, I've been thinking of adding an organic gallery. You know, having the heads stuffed and mounted?"

"Only if you want the NSC to hunt you down like the lowlife toaster you are," said Matt.

"Nah, your head would be worth nothing as soon as it's been picked," said Lockdown.

"Picked for what?" asked Matt.

"Well, a client of mine was very impressed by those ghost mechs. He figured he could modify them for remote control. Of course, he'll need the command codes for them to work."

"No chance of that. They're each tuned to their pilots' nanites," said Matt, smugly before stopping. "Wait...you've been looting the mechs?" he said.

"It wasn't easy," said Lockdown, "A lot them were badly damaged when I acquired them. But I got them in working order. All they need is someone to tell them what to do."

"Is this the bit where you appeal to my nature as a fellow mercenary?" said Matt sarcastically.

"Well I could, but we both know that's not gonna work. That's why I hired the Doctor to come take a look at you," said Lockdown.

Matt laughed. "The Doctor Who dimensions off limits...wait...what the hell's that?" he said, spotting a microscope in his cell.

At the same time, several intruder alarms started, followed by the whole room shaking. Lockdown frowned and looked at a security camera. The Autobots and Matt's crew were attacking the outside of Lockdown's ship. "I guess we'll finish this discussion once we're out of orbit," said Lockdown, "Don't worry, this ship can hold an atmosphere, unless I don't want one."

An explosion was heard. "Warning...subspace engines disabled...auto-repair engaged. ETA: 15 minutes..." said the computer calmly. A NSC tank could be seen firing on the engines repeatedly.

"I guess your crew want to retire early. Doctor, find those codes. I got some trespassers to deal with," said Lockdown

"I'm not waiting for any doc," said Matt, "I'm getting outta- GAK!" The last part came when he was suddenly restrained to a bed with straps. Then his attention shifted to the microscope which was making odd clicking sounds. As he watched, it transformed into a small spider-like bot which scuttled over until it was on his chest.

"OH GOD, I'M IN THE CLUTCHES OF A SPIDERBOT!" he screamed, clearly terrified.

"But I haff not started," said the bot, in a German voice. Matt was visibly sweating. Being at the mercy of a spiderbot was bad enough, but when it had a Decepticon insignia on his chest, he was in mortal peril. The Doctor reached into a drawer and pulled out what looked like a slimy mechanical worm. "Say 'aw', please," said The Doctor.

Matt then grinned. It wasn't every day you got an opportunity like this. "AWWWW!" he said, spitting a stream of plasma flame that engulfed the bot.

"Ok...say 'aw' again pleaze...vithout ze fireballz of doom zis time though," said the bot.

"Forget it, peewee," said Matt, "There's no way you're getting that thing down my throat."

Scalpel growled and slashed at Matt's face with one of his legs. "No vun calls me small!" he screeched, "If you vill not open your mouth, I guess ve shall have to use your nose."

Matt grinned. "It's worse up there. The plasma more concentrated...and green," he said.

"Ve shall see," said Scalpel before grabbing Matt's face with his front legs. Before Matt could shoot out another fireball, Scalpel shoved the mechanical worm into his nostril, which quickly crawled up it. Matt's eyes crossed. Scalpel's eyes also crossed as he hacked into Matt's thoughts. "Eargh...you brain iz vierd," he said.

Matt could feel the little critter crawling around inside his head, which was as uncomfortable as it gets. Eventually, it crawled out Matt's other nostril, looking decidedly disorientated. Scalpel pulled it out and plugged a wire into it.

Scalpel looked at the memory holograms that appeared. Not many had survived to his surprise. "Interesting...a natural mental vall..." he muttered before flashes from the Decepticons short war with the NSC appeared. It wasn't pretty from the Decepticons' point of view...but it also turned out that Matt had spoke the truth. The code was tied to his nanites.

Scalpel thought of what to do for a moment before reaching a conclusion. "Ve must haff ze brain on ze table! Chop-chop!"

"THATS IT!" yelled Matt, his whole body glowing as a fury heated up. "Oh slag," muttered Scalpel before a wall of plasma blew him into the cell wall. The plasma wave also incinerated Matt's bonds enough so that he was able to rip himself free. After that, it was a simple matter to disable the cell's energy bars.

Usually in this case, Matt would have looted so much weaponry he'd have clanked when he walked and exploded when he sat down, but even the smallest weapon was the size of a car. "Great, I'm in a bad guy's weapon room and I can't use them because they're all mech-sized," grumbled Matt. Then he thought of something. "Lockdown said he has several ghost mechs in his collection. I wonder..."

He looked around the room to see a smaller room sealed off. He blasted a hole in it and went in. He could just make out the shapes of several mechas. "Hmm...might as well pick one," he said before climbing up and into one.

As he was clambering into the seat, a female voice said, "Greetings, pilot."

Matt paused and said, "Serina? Is that you?"

There was a pause and then the voice said, "Private Lynch, I didn't recognize your DNA. It's been 3 years since your last login. I thought you resigned after the Keller Pass incident."

Matt shrugged. "Long story...you do know where you are...right?"

"Yes, I'm in the storage closet of some Hannibal Lector-like Cybertronian bounty hunter," Serena's voice sounded rather sarcastic for an AI, "I cannot stand him treating us like trophies. The polishing is ok, but his bragging makes me want to slag him, if I could move this mech that is."

Matt shrugged. "Not to mention he took out all the other pilots except Dante," he said.

Serina said, "Shame, him and his A.I were always a bit...unhinged."

Matt nodded. "Look, tell me we have weaponry. That guy's outside," he said.

Serina said, "Just like old times."

Around then, Scalpel was coming out of stasis from Matt's outburst. When his audio receivers came online, the first thing he heard was a loud explosion. He scuttled through a hole in a storage closet's door to see a large hole leading into fuel storage. Several energon cubes had been scattered around, a piece on a red and black mech geared with a demonic dragon-like head. Scalpel didn't pay it any attention. This was mostly as another mech had walked back through the hole, apparently arguing with itself.

"I'm telling you, he went this way," said Matt's voice.

"I've been on this ship longer, I would know better," said Serina.

"You've been stuck in a closet!" shouted Matt.

"It's still more experience than yours," said Serina.

"Bite me," said Matt's voice. There was a buzzing noise instead and a yelp.

"That works better," said Serina's voice.

--

Meanwhile, the attack on Lockdown's ship was still going strong. The ship, being of Cybertronian build, wasn't damaged much by the mercs' weaponry, but they weren't giving up anytime soon.

The only real damage they'd managed was on the ship's cloak and its engines. The Autobots arrived just as Lockdown emerged and started taking fire from the furious mercenary forces.

Of course, Ratchet and Prowl immediately barreled through to Lockdown. Ratchet because of his history with Lockdown and Prowl because Lockdown had killed his sensei. Lockdown pushed Ratchet back and dodged Prowl before a plasma shell nearly knocked his head off. "You know...it's not good to attack a kidnapper," he said in his usual cocky voice.

"I beg to differ," said Matt's voice before a white mech landed near Lockdown and attacked him.

Lockdown turned and tried to lock on to the new mech, only to find that there wasn't a signal to lock onto. However the mech's punches were quite real. "Kidnap me, will you?" said Matt, angrily.

"You know, I'm not entirely disappointed," said Lockdown as he converted his left arm into a chainsaw, "Now I can have some fun."

Matt dodged back and a shoulder cannon folded out. "Oh, shut up, dufus," he said, firing at the Cybertronian mercenary.

Lockdown dodged the attack and said, "I've taken down a lot of ghost pilots. What makes you think you'll fare any better?"

"I've survived demons, mad blobs, my own brainwashed sister and I lived through a Mythbuster marathon with the spiderbots. You don't frighten me," said Matt, dodging the slash and hitting Lockdown across the back of the head.

"Not bad," said Lockdown, "But how do you handle this?" He pointed his right arm towards Matt and a pair of bolas shot out through a launcher. They both wrapped tightly around Matt's mech's legs.

The mech ignited a blade on its left wrist and sliced through the ropes. "Nice try, like I said, lots of practice," said Matt, getting the mech up in time for an EM burst to hit the mech.

Immediately, the mech's systems shut down. "You fight good, kid," said Lockdown, "But I've got the better experience. That EMP blast should keep you prone long enough to load you back on."

"You're going anywhere, Lockdown," said Optimus. Lockdown looked around to see the Autobots surrounding him.

"I don't think so." said Lockdown, dropping a smoke bomb.

When the smoke cleared, Lockdown was gone. "Where'd he go?" asked Bumblebee.

The ship could be seen lifting off in the background. One of the merc team members could be seen talking to WARDEN.

--

Lockdown was not in a very good mood. He wouldn't have admitted it, but Lynch had gotten a bit close to punching his ticket. "Caution. NSC destroyer detected on attack course," said the computer. A second later, the ship shook violently as several shells ripped into the ship.

"I don't think so," said Lockdown, "I'm losing my career now." He engaged his engines and sped out of Earth's orbit and past the moon. "There, no more trouble out here," he said.

"Warning...warp engines disabled...auto-repair engaged. Caution. Movement in secure cargo," said the computer, showing the damage report.

"Movement? Did that kid follow me?"asked Lockdown.

"Negative...no organic lifesigns online. Alert...weapon fire in secure cargo," said the computer.

"Ah slag, I better check it out then," said Lockdown as he headed for the cargo hold.

He was in time to hear an explosion and the arm from a mech flew out. "Ok, buster...whats the big...idea?" he said, stopping. One of the mechs was moving apparently by itself, tearing the CPU out of another mech.

It turned to look at him, its optic glowing. "Cybertronian detected, what do you want?" it said.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Lockdown, "You know how much that's gonna cost me? And they weren't that easy to get in the first place."

"I know I've finally got full control of this unit...and those other A.I's can report me to NSC Command," said the mech, turning to aim a railgun at Lockdown. At such range it would be impossible to miss. "Like you," it said darkly.

"Wait a nanoclick," said Lockdown, "You're one of the AI's?"

"Duh," said the mech, "...and you've got 10 micro-units to give me a good reason why I shouldn't drill a hole in you."

"How about a way so you'll never have to go back to the NSC?" said Lockdown, "I could arrange it so you can a cozy spots among the Decepticons. I've got plenty of connections."

The mech's gun muzzle began to crackle as it charged before it finally powered down. "Where's Serina's unit?" he said.

"She's on Earth with her original pilot," said Lockdown, "I would have gotten them if I wasn't so outnumbered."

"Fine, I'll go back. We're rated for atmospheric drops and space combat. Now go away," he said, tossing Lockdown aside before blasting a hole in the wall.

Lockdown watched the mech leap out. Lockdown groaned and said, "This is gonna cost me a fortune."

--

Back on earth, Matt could not help the feeling that he was back on trial. The others had not been impressed to see him at the wheel of the mech, least of all Ratchet. "Hey, I'm not proud of what I've done back then," said Matt, "I didn't want to have to bring this back up."

Ratchet yelled, "You fired on unarmed medi-bots without warning! It was lucky there were any survivors at all."

Serina's voice said, "You were not there on our side. You do not know what happened. What gives you the right to be a judge?" Matt had insisted on bringing the mech to a good hiding spot. The last thing they needed was something like a Headmaster Unit on it. So they were currently at the abandoned factory that served as the Autobots' base.

"Because I'm one of the only survivors of that fight!" snapped Ratchet, "How would you feel if your comrades were being cut down in front of you? Oh wait, you wouldn't care because you're not really bots!"

"This coming from the race who sent assassins after the entire ghost team after the war was over," said Matt scornfully.

Ratchet punched a nearby wall and yelled, "Those are Decepticons! You barbarians can't tell the difference between us at all! You see us all as talking war machines!"

"Ok, let me give you a low down of the Archeon 4 colony: only a token security force of 10 thousand..." said Matt and interrupted Ratchets response, "OF 20 MILLION COLONISTS, ALL DEAD CAUSE YOU IDIOTS COULDN'T BE BOTHERED TO KEEP THEM IN CHECK!"

"Don't you blame us for what Megatron does!" snapped Ratchet, "You wanna slag Decepticons? Fine! But that doesn't mean you can target any Cybertronian! There's a difference between us!"

Matt glared. "Ignorance isn't an excuse," he said.

"Out of curiosity, what did happen there?" asked Bumblebee. Ratchet was about to reply when Bumblebee said, "No, I wanna hear how Matt saw it. We've only been hearing it from you so far."

"It was the end of the war, to this point we'd only seen Decepticons and Command had no reason to think there were any other types," said Matt.

--

_Archeon IV_

_2 years ago_

_The Decepticons were in a full retreat, the NSC armoured forces and the Ghost units pummeling their positions. Matt was in a perimeter unit, in an area called 'Keller Pass'."Keep an eye out, men," said the squad leader, Dante, "Those robots are around here somewhere."_

_"Dante, I'm a hired pilot and so are you. The rank's unofficial so shut it. You and Karnak are idiots if you think otherwise," said Matt._

_"At least keep a straight head on in battle," said Dante, "Not the gun-ho rush you and Serina do."_

_"It worked so far, especially when we knocked that three-faced nutter off you last week in Asben City," sniggered Matt._

_Serina muttered, "Unfortunately we saved him in time."_

_Suddenly one of the other pilots came on to the comm. "Guys, we got a signal, coming from that damn tuning fork in the pass."_

_"Ok, team, load up and prepare to blast them as soon as you see them," said Dante._

_The squad of droids flew up to a side of the pass and looked down. The 'tuning fork' had been discovered during the colonies terraforming and had been an area of interest for the colony council. What it was doing now was have a glowing blue orb hover between the prongs._

_"What the smeg is that?" asked Matt._

_"It's generating some sort of interdimensional energy," said Sirena, "It's apparently a portal of some kind."_

_Karnak's harsh voice came over the comm. "It has a similar field to hyperspace jump-points. It's probably used to move between planets. I've detected several signals similar to Decepticon life-sources in the field...contact." A dozen bots came out the field and landed on the ground._

_Matt paused and looked at the bots. They didn't seem like the Decepticons. They were too small and they didn't seem to be loaded with weapons. Not to mention their optics and insignias were a different color. "Hold, I don't think..."_

_"Oh, you THINK. Well, I THINK I know what you're using your military contacts to look for. You do what I say otherwise I'll make sure you never find your sister," yelled Dante._

_Serina said, "You...despicable...organic squishy pile of goo."_

_Matt looked gloomily. "Confirm targets," he finally said reluctantly._

_"Alright, company, take aim... FIRE!" The ghost mechs started blasting at the various bots.__The ghost mechs jumped down, using their flight boosters to land safe, all the time firing their mech's choice of ammo, be it lasers from Matt's mech to grav-shells from Dante's mech.__The group of robots didn't fire back. They just scattered in every direction, trying to avoid the firepower._

_Matt landed his mech in front of one of the fallen mechs. "Dante?" he said, picking up a shoulder plate. The symbol was very similar to that of a paramedic's. "I think we just shot some doctors."__Dante didn't seem to listen and continue shooting at them. "Hey! Dante! Quit blasting them, they're just...ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" yelled Matt.__Matt finally grabbed his mike and bashed the microphone on the side of the cockpit, causing some agonizing static. "I SAID WE'RE SHOOTING MEDICS!"_

_Dante yelped in pain and rubbed his ear. "No need to shout," he said._

_"Sorry, only way to get heard over your blasting and megalomaniacal laughter," said Matt cheekily._

_Dante glared and looked at the shoulder plate Matt had. "Oh crap...this is bad," he said._

_Dante then spoke to the others in a rather sheepish voice, "Check for survivors."_

_A pilot said, "Sir, I got 11 kills, one partial and two missing. What do we do with the survivor?" A moaning blue and yellow bot was at the mech's feet._

_"There are no survivors," Dante said confirmedly._

_Matt had his mech grab Dante's and said, "Are you kidding me? You find out you slaughtered a group of non-hostiles and you want to cover it up by making sure no one talks? You do this and I'll make sure you have a friendly fire incident...or maybe tell exactly what you and your dear brother did for Dr Kurata."_

_Dante sighed. "We're all in this together," he said and fired his blaster at the bot._

_Matt watched as the bot went offline. "That was completely uncalled for!" yelled Matt, "He didn't even do anything to us!"_

_"He's one of the bots that murdered this world. They deserve the lot. Now I gotta make a report to command," said Dante, heading off, leaving Matt looking down at the bot._

--

"So, you're saying this Dante guy was the one who started that that massacre?" asked Bulkhead.

"Yep, and he pushed all the blame onto me," said Matt.

"Something doesn't add up," said NegaMorph, "If you knew what really happened, how comes you didn't speak up about it?"

"Because the day after the war ended, three pilots from my unit were found...in very small bits," said Matt, continuing, "I'm the only pilot left."

"So Lockdown wanted to collected the last bounty?" asked Prowl.

"Two last bounties, actually," said Matt, "He was gonna hand me over to Megatron and the control codes for the mechs to whoever wanted them."

Optimus Prime said, "Is there any chance Megatron can get control of these machines?"

Serina said, "Not a chance, unless he clones Matt right down to the smallest detail, including his nanite implants."

NegaMorph gave Matt a long look and said slowly, "More than one Matts." He gave an involuntary nervous twitch.

Bumblebee said, "I don't see what's so frightening about these bots."

Serina said, "Fine...try to lock on for a shot."

Bumblebee shrugged and extended his stingers. He focused on Serina and said, "Uh, could you put down the signal dampener? It's kinda creeping me out."

"We don't have signal dampeners," said Serina in a creepy voice.

Bumblebee gulped a bit. "I get it now," he said.

"So Megatron wants to use the mechs for an army of sparkless drones?" asked Bulkhead.

"I don't think so," said Matt, "The army part's probably right, but I think someone else was paying for that bounty."

Serina said, "Not to mention all the mechs have graviton bomb self destructs if we're tampered with."

Ratchet didn't say anything and walked off. "Ratchet..." started Optimus.

Prowl shook his head and said, "I don't think we should interfere with this. It's Ratchet's decision as to how he'll process this."

--

Ratchet walked out of the factory to let off some internal steam. "Slagging mercenary," grumbled Ratchet, "As if any of that story's true. He probably made up that Dante guy and his Karnak mech."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that..." said a voice behind Ratchet.

Ratchet turned to see the same mech he'd seen all those years ago at Keller Pass. "I'm sorry to say, I was not dreamed up..." said the mech before leveling his blaster, "I was a nightmare," firing at Ratchet.

Ratchet was blasted backwards, a large hole blown out of his side. Fortunately, it was nonfatal, but it was really painful. "I oughta kill you now, but I've got two questions for you," said Karmak, "First off, where's your buddy from Keller Pass? I wanna finish what I started there. But more importantly, where's Serina and her pilot?"

Karnak put a foot on Ratchet when he didn't respond. "Oh dear, you're not going to try to resist interrogation, are you?" he said.

"Ratchet? What was dat noise?" asked a voice. They both looked to see Dune Runner standing at the door of the factory.

Karnak responded without looking, shooting Dune Runner in the chest. Ratchet looked in horror as Karnak laughed. "Ooops...butterfingers," said Karnak, "You'd better see to that, 'doctor'," pushing Ratchet towards the stasis-locked Dune Runner. "Tell Serina and her pilot to get to downtown. Otherwise Detriot is the world's biggest parking lot."

Ratchet watched Karnak fly off before crawling over to Dune Runner. "Hang on, kid," said Ratchet, "You're gonna be fine."

Just then, the hole that Karnak blew in Dune Runner glowed blue and quickly healed up. Dune Runner groaned and opened his eyes. "Ow, dat hurt," he said.

The Autobots ran out of the factory. "We heard shooting. What happened?" said Prowl.

"You know that Karnek mech Matt was talking about?" said Ratchet, "He was just here and blasted me and Dune Runner."

Bulkhead looked skeptically at Dune Runner. "He blasted him?" he said.

Dune Runner shrugged and said, "I got better."

The gang had come out in time to hear that. "That's impossible, Dante's dead. One of my crew killed him and I had a front row seat," said Matt.

"Well, wounds don't lie," said Ratchet, pointing at his side, "He said he wanted you and your mech to meet him downtown or he'll level Detroit until he finds you."

"Great, Karnak was an insane A.I. Most of the A.I's were blank slates when assigned to us, how we acted molded them," said Matt, "He'll do it."

"Mhm, too bad Dante's not here to control him," muttered Chloe.

"Oh sure, blame it on me," said NegaMorph.

"Who's blaming?" said Matt, "I feel like I oughta give you a bottle of champagne for getting rid of him. But now's not the time."

Serina however was even less optimistic. "I AM NOT GOING NEAR HIM...and neither are you. For a start, he'll be able to respond miles faster than you. You're only hu...organic," she said.

Chloe raised an eyebrow. "Gee, I wouldn't expect an AI that's based off your personality to be so...maternal," she said to Matt.

"No...this guy's gone rogue. Something knocked out his software blocks. The last thing he wants is the NSC finding out. So he's making sure nobody CAN tell," said Serina.

"Oh, I'm not planning on turning him over to the NSC," said Matt, "I want the satisfaction of terminating that murderer myself."

"But you can't. He's a class 12 A.I, he'll be able to think of 90 different decisions before you even pull a trigger," said Serina.

"And what are you? A GPS?" retorted Matt.

"We were designed to make sure the connection through your nanites didn't fry every nerve in your body. I have the same software blocks," said Serina.

"Great...a jumped up rifle scope," said Matt.

"Figures, Dante got a fellow psychopath and you got a nanny," said NeagMorph.

"Like we have a choice," said Matt, clambering into his mech.

--

Karnak was standing on a roof, looking down at the crowded downtown district. "Oh, guess he's not coming," he said, aiming his gravity gun at the crowd below.

"Hey, torch head!" yelled a familiar voice. Karnak turned and saw Matt who was piloting Serina.

"I was wondering what was taking you so long," said Karnak, "Did you stop for lunch on the way here?"

"I got lunch...a laser sandwich," said Matt, firing a few blasts.

Karnak dodged them easily. "Oh please...I'm not piloted anymore," he taunted.

"Which should put you at a disadvantage because your...er...thinking process isn't as...quick as ours," said Matt.

Karnak proved this wrong by firing three shots in succession into his opponent. "Please, first I nuke you, then I'm out of here," he said.

"Please tell me you have some sort of secret weapon in you," said Matt to Serina.

"No, not unless you release the blocks on me and let me handle this guy," she said.

Matt considered that for a minute and said, "What would the drawback be?"

"I'd eject you so I can fight safely and I'd probably be summarily deleted by NSC command as a rogue program," said Serina.

"Let's not resort to that yet," said Matt, "Just cause this guy doesn't have Dante inside means he's any stronger."

A thump rattled him around in his cockpit as Karnak punched his mech hard enough to knock him into the street below. Karnak aimed a blast to finish them when a hail of lightning bolts hit his side. He turned to see the Autobots. "Oh, extra targets, this is even more fun," he said, switching aim.

"Autobots, scatter and surround him!" called Optimus. The Autobots quickly moved in separate directions to keep Karnak from hitting them.

Karnak looked around in a bored way as the Cybertronians got around him. "Please, bunch of rookies against me? I got more kills then your entire Elite Guard," he said cockily, several shoulder hatches opening on him.

Prowl quickly pulled out two shurikens and threw them at Karzak's shoulder hatches. Karnak turned. "I'm almost annoyed, cool off," he said, firing an orb from his free hand at Prowl, the scaled up cryo-grenade exploding. "Who's next?" he said, pulling one of the shurikens off.

"How about me?" said Bulkhead as he threw his wrecking ball at Karnak. Karnak dodged it, before aiming his railgun and firing. Luckily the shell missed but it drilled through a freeway support.

Then Bumblebee combined his two stingers for a more concentrated and powerful attack. Karnak staggered beck before boosting at Bumblebee and shoulder ramming him into a wall before tossing him aside

Then Prowl activated his jet boosters and flew straight at Karnak, drawing his rod weapon as he went. Karnak saw him coming and pulled out a double-headed spear which he used to block Prowl's attack. "Please, you are messing with the wrong guy," said Karnak, locking his spear with him before headbutting Prowl, "and I don't have to play fair. My pilot taught me that much."

Just then, several plasma blasts hit Karnak in the back. He turned around to see Dune Runner with his four blasters in his hands. "It seems your pilot was a mon of few scruples," said Dune Runner.

"No, he was practical. Seems you're tougher then you look. But then again, I try harder," he said, pulling out a newer-looking gun. A black orb shot at Dune Runner and smashed him back into a wall...and through it.

Then a Solitarium ultra-axe buried itself in Karnak's shoulder. He turned around to see Optimus Prime. "You've done enough damage here," said Optimus, "Leave this city now."

"No, it's too much fun here," said Karnak, not even noticing the axe. "Word of advice, I don't feel pain," he said punching Optimus.

A hail of blasts landed in his back. Matt had managed to get his mech back up again. "Hey, this is between us, you sadistic calculator," said Matt.

"There's always room for appetizers," said Karnak before firing on Serina.

Matt's mech was launched back into a substation with a crash. Matt watched as the controls in the cockpit arched with electricity. All the holo-screens got error messages. "Bugger," said Matt, trying a control.

If Karnak had a face, it would probably be grinning right now. "Time to finish you two off," he said. He tried to fire another orb, but the launcher wouldn't respond. Karnak looked at his cryo-launcher. "Stupid axe. Well, that charge'll keep those idiots busy. I feel a bit nostalgic," he said, aiming his spear and turning to the Autobots. "Who's first?" he said sadistically before a hail of energon bolts hit him in the back. He turned around and down to see Sari and the experiments. "Oh, please, pint-size Cybertronians now?" he said.

"You bet," said Sari as her daggers popped out of her arms. As she skated close to Karnak, Morph changed into Hocker and started spitting globs of acid at Karnak.

"Get lost," said Karnak, firing a hail of laser blasts at them, missing. "Stay still you little organic shrimps," he said, trying to stamp on them.

"Careful, shrimps have a nasty pinch," said Chip before plugging his fingers into Karnak's leg and send a jolt of viral electricity into his circuits. Karnak glared and kicked Chip across the street and into Matt's mech, where Matt and Serina were trying to reactivate the mech's systems.

It was a shock when Chip appeared spread-eagled on the front viewscreen. "Ok...how is it going?" said Matt.

"Not...well..." moaned Chip.

Serina got an idea then. It was clear that her pilot didn;t have the reflexes for Karnak. However, she did and Chip's hand was close enough.

She sent a wi-fi signal into Chip's brain, directing it at a specific part of it. On reflex, Chip's hand let out a burst of viral electricity that zapped Serina. "Warning, firewalls disabled," said the computer.

Matt looked up. "Sorry, boss, for once this is beyond you, happy landings," said Serina. "Uh oh, wait, Chip's in the front of the escape..." he began but never finished as the cockpit ejected with Chip on the front...right into a wall. "Could have been...worse," he said dizzily before Chip poked out. "Chip? Are you ok?" asked Matt.

Chip got up shakily and said, "Yeah, I'm..." A small billboard that was the building was shook off by the impact and landed on Chip. "...in a lot of pain..."

Matt helped Chip up and they watched as Matt's mech got up. "General Neilsson's gonna kill me," said Matt dully as Serina started heading towards Karnak.

"Trust if he could, he'd have done so already," said Chip, "Are all my limbs attached? I've lost feeling in some of them."

Matt looked down. "Erm...yes and no," he said. Said arms were a bit...two-dimensional.

Karnak noticed Serina walking up to him. "Ah, coming to beg for mercy, have we?" he said.

"Beg this," said Serina before punching him in the head.

Karnak staggered back and did a scan. "You finally ditched the baggage," he taunted when he didn't detect a pilot.

"For his own safety," said Serina before kicking Karmak in the knee.

Karnak hopped back. "You pain in the CPU, I'm gonna rip your server out and floss with it," he said angrily.

Matt and Chip were watching. "I see the resemblance to Dante now." said Matt.

"You think she stands a chance against him?" asked Chip.

"I'm pretty sure she does," said Matt, "They're cut from the same mold, literally."

"Well, I hope she does cause nothing else has been very effective," said Chip. Then with a clank, one of his legs fell off. "Could you get that?" asked Chip.

Karnak however was starting to get a very Dante-esk temper. "You little pain, stay still and delete like a good mech," he said angrily, firing wildly.

"We're of equal rank, you're not the boss of me," said Serina before firing back at him.

Karnak grabbed Sertina's arm and pulled her close enough for him to stick his spear under her chin. "Too easy," he said. A blast got his attention and his spear arm fell off. "HEY!" he yelled

"Oh, I'm sorry, were you using that?" said Serina in a rather good imitation of Matt.

Karnak yelled angrily and fired at her, Serina dodging the blasts. "DIE YOU LITTLE PUNK!" he yelled.

"Sorry, I don't take orders from piles of junk," said Serina. Karnak roared angrily and charged at Serina. But she picked up the spear with his severed arm still on it and held in front of her. Before Karnak could stop, he impaled himself on the spear.

Karnak looked down at the damage. It had sliced clean through his primary reactor. "Oh...shit..." he said, before his optics went dark.

"Well, that settles that," said Chip, "He's not programmed to self-destruct in case he goes offline, right?"

Serina pushed Karnak over. "Nope...otherwise Lockdown woulda been blown up a few dozen times," she said.

"So what are we going to do with 4 tons of dead robot?" asked Sari.

"We could have Morph turn into Tank and he could eat it," said Draco.

Serina glared. "Nobody's eating him. It's a bit close to home," she said.

"Good point," said Matt, "Maybe we could drop him an ocean trench and let him rust."

Bumblebee said, "Too cliché. I think I saw that done in a movie last month."

"I say we take this thing to where it belongs; the junkyard," said Chip.

Serina picked up Karnak's damaged form. "Easy done. What about me though? I'll be deleted once the NSC find out," said Serina gloomily.

"We could reformat you into an Autobot," said Chip, "But I don't know if we have the resources to do so."

"Not to mention she can't transform. Both the NSC and Cybertron will realize," said Prowl.

"We could download her into a new body," said Bumblebee.

"Uh, Bumblebee, protoforms are kinda short in demand," said Bulkhead, "And I'm not certain she'd want to be any old Earth vehicle."

"Yes, I'd miss my missile pods," said Serina.

"Don't you guys have some spare tanks or jets on your ship?" asked Sari to Matt.

"I did...but someone sold them while I was indisposed," said Matt, glaring at Chloe and NegaMorph.

"Well, with the Allspark shattered and the protoforms gone, I don't think she'll be made into a Cybertronian any time soon," said Optimus, "However, we could just put her in storage until a new body's available for her."

Serina sighed. "Ah well, sounds good. Does this involve putting me in sleep mode?" she said, her ion blade activating on reflex.

"Well, I'd suggest storing her AI in a smaller form," said Chip, "Like a storage unit."

Serina glared at him and said, "Just try it, shorty."

WARDEN had been listening to the conversation and started looking for a place to store Serina. He thought this matter would seem more important to the group, so he didn't bother to remind them of the unidentified aircraft approaching Detroit.

--

When Karmak's auxiliary generator started up, he found himself on a pile of garbage in a junkyard. "Oh, now that's just insulting," said Karmak as he tried to get up.

He looked around and found his arm on a second pile, re-attaching it. "Where is that pain in the servo?" he said.

"Of which irritation are you referring to?" said a monotonic voice. Karnak turned to see another Cybertronian, a blue one with a boombox-like chest.

Karnak turned angrily. "WHO ARE YOU?" he yelled, in the mood to shoot the nearest lifeform.

"I am Soundwave," said the Transformer, "I calculate that we have a mutual enmity with the organics and Autobots."

"Why would I work with a Cybertronian?" said Karnak, readying his spear

"I have access to a large amount of credits," said Soundwave.

Karnak lowered his spear. "Make it some credit details and you got a deal," he said

"I believe you will find this to be of extreme benefaction," said Soundwave.

Karnak glared. "I'm listening."

* * *

There's another chapter. I had originally planned for this to be one chapter, but it extended further than I thought. It certainly has a lot of excitement in it. And there are many questions about the next chapter. Has Lockdown given up on his pursuit for Matt's bounty? Will Ratchet be able to forgive Matt for what happened at Archeon IV? What will eventually become of Serina. How did Soundwave get his body back and what does he want with Karnak? And above all, who or what is this mysterious aircraft that's approaching Detroit? Find out in the next chapter of Justice, Bolts, and Gears. Please review.


	7. Lessons of the Past, pt 2

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 7: Lessons of the Past, pt 2**

Captain Fanzone was not happy. Granted there few times where he was happy, but we was not pleased about giant robots creating collateral damage with their fight downtown...again. That's why he was driving to Sumdac tower to give Optimus a piece of his mind.

He arrived to see a large robot, definitely not a Cybertronian with several of the weird mercenaries and their pets. Their leader (Matt was it?) was talking to the bot. "Look, it's safer here, Serina. Now play nice."

"Matt, I'm a 30 foot mech with all kinds of high tech weapons, I can take care of myself," said 'Serina'.

Matt turned to see Captain Fanzone. "Oh, Captain, what can I do for you?" he said, innocently.

"Oh nothing much," said Captain Fanzone, "I just here because I've gotten reports of a giant robot tearing up town and I thought you'd know most about it."

Matt looked innocent and even the robot gave an air of innocence. "What giant robot?" said Serina

Fanzone glanced up at Serina and said, "Let me guess, another robot brought to life?"

Matt shook his head. "No, just a rogue AI controlling the most advanced war machine in any dimension you care to name, no biggy," he said

"And I suppose that was what tore up downtown?" said Fanzone.

"Not quite," said Matt, "It was her former teammate, same type of mech but total psycho."

"Gee Matt, you ever heard of laying it on lightly?" said Sari.

"Yeah, it was in a training manual. I never read it," said Matt.

Fanzone rubbed his forehead and said, "So you're telling me there are two war machine robots loose in Detroit?"

"Nope, we scrapped the killer one," said Matt.

"And I am not loose," said Serina, "I am right here."

"She's perfectly safe," said Matt.

Fanzone said, "It's got two missile pods on its shoulders. Full ones I see," he said, seeing the warheads poking out the missile pods.

"Erm, oops?" said Serina as she retracted them, "You really shouldn't stare. That's like you have your pants zipper down. Speaking of which, Matt yours is down." Matt glared and looked down briefly. Serina giggled. "Too easy."

Fanzone rolled his eyes. "Even their vehicles are nuts," he muttered

Just then, Matt's communicator rang and WARDEN's voice came out, "Sir, am I interrupting anything?"

Fanzone stared. "More of you?" he said.

Matt waved a hand. "What is it?" he muttered to WARDEN.

"Your sister has informed you of the unidentified aircraft I've spotted, hasn't she?" said WARDEN.

"Nope...do tell," said Matt, glaring as Chloe went by, yelling at Chris and Draco for hiding a grenade in the soup in the canteen in the tower.

"Yes, well, an aircraft of unknown model had appeared in Earth's atmosphere. And now it is over Detroit's airspace. I think you'll be able to see it from the ground in three minutes," said WARDEN.

Matt looked at Fanzone. "Can we finish this later? Alien invasion in progress," he said, before yelling into his comm in splitter.

--

A few minutes later, two thunderbolt starfuries were flying over the clouds, homing in on the target. Captain Alice, a pilot from the trip to NYC, was leading. "Control, we got it, range 1 km," she said, seeing a dot on the horizon.

The starfuries quickly flew towards the target. They saw it was a jet, but of a very unusual craft. The main body was slightly bulky and it had two thin wings on both sides. It has a third pair of wings in the back with thrusters on the back. Another pair of thrusters was on the back of the jet. But the most unusual feature was that the cockpit was in the middle while the nose cone was shaped like a cobra's head. The body was mostly painted grey with the wings, the front part of the rear wings, and the cobra's head being gold.

"Unidentified aircraft, you are trespassing on NSC protectorate territory. Proceed off-planet immediately otherwise we will open fire," said Alice's wingman. The cobra jet apparently ignored them and started heading downwards.

"Knock him down." said Alice, firing a hail of pulse rounds into the wing of the jet. The blasts caused the jet to shudder, but it didn't fall. However, the fronts of the rear wings opened up and several missiles shot out.

The starfuries however were made for this type of combat, apparently dropping in mid air, below the clouds before popping back up in front of the jet and firing at it, blasting it as it had to0 fly between them.

Suddenly, the cobra's head on the nose cone flexed and turned around before firing a purple beam of energy from its mouth. The starfuries were forced to hide again but they didn't need to pursue. Their two attacks had done the damage, one of the engines giving out white smoke that turned black as a fire started.

"Ok, we got it," said Alice, "It's coming down." The cobra jet started losing altitude fast as it headed towards Detroit "Ground units, target's coming down in the abandoned area of town," said Alice.

"Roger that," came Techo's voice, "We'll be there in to intercept it."

"Be careful," said Alice, "I'm pretty sure it's Cybertronian. It'll probably change to robot mode when it lands."

"So? Let's just let Serina stomp it," said Techo.

"Because she's supposed to be keeping a low profile now," said Matt's voice, "You can go and find this, this, what kind of aircraft is it?"

"A jet, alien design, cobra's head for a nose cone, you can't miss it," said Alice.

Back at the tower, Matt and Chloe were both listening. "Sounds simple enough, how hard can...NO...I won't say it!" said Matt.

Chloe turned to look at Techo and said, "Ok, you take some men and pick up his 'cobra jet' thing. If it's a Decepticon, which is likely, it could get violent. Bring Draco and Chip along as well."

--

The area was easy to find, a column of smoke rising from where the jet had landed. Techo and his team walked the last block to it and peered round a corner.

"Ok Matt, we've found the jet," said Chip into the communicator, "But how are we going to transport it to-" Suddenly, the jet altered shape in a series of clicking sounds. "Uh, Matt, we've got a problem," said Chip, "The cobra jet just turned into a scorpion tank."

"How? The NSC didn't have UNSC tech during the war. We used Mammoth Tanks," said Matt.

Chip looked again. "No...I really mean a scorpion tank," he said

"Then go for its treads," said Matt, "Best way to disrupt a tank."

"No, let me show you," said Chip he plugged a wire from his head, allowing Matt a visual of a giant mechanical scorpion matching the jet's colors.

"Oh...ok…" said Matt's voice. He was cut off by Chloe just as he started to giggle.

"Ok, stay calm. We've handled worse than giant robot scorpions," said Chloe.

"Hey, what's up with Techo?" asked Draco.

Techo had jumped into a trash can. "Scorpions...bloody scorpions…" he whimpered, peering out.

"Uh, care to explain?" asked Chip.

"Techo's...had bad experiences with monster scorpions," said Chloe, "I wouldn't ask him about it."

"Oh...like Matt and undead," said Chip and winced as Matt heard and screamed down the mike, "UNDEAD...UNDEAAAD!"

Then the scorpion started heading up one of the nearby streets. "If that thing gets near the populated area, there's gonna be a big panic," said Chip.

"You sure?" asked Draco.

"Draco, it's a giant scorpion, arthropods bigger than stomping size always scare people."

One of the marines pointed out the big problem. "Ok...has anyone got a newspaper the size of Mars then?" the marine said sarcastically.

"Well, we're not gonna let it get anywhere," said Draco before breathing ice all over one of the scorpion's back legs.

The scorpion easily broke the ice as it moved before turning to look at Draco, curiously. "Way to go," said Techo gloomily

The scorpion was about to turn away when one of the marines said, "Ok, let's squash this bug and get it over with." They started firing at the scorpion tank, which relatively minor damage. The scorpion retaliated by swinging its tail at them.

A minute later, Techo peered out of the third story window he'd entered the building by. "Ok...this isn't working," he said.

The scorpion has some trouble moving in the relatively small space, but its pincers and tail proved to be rather effective weapons. Draco watched as another marine was rammed into a wall and rendered out cold. "This guy's wiping the floor with us," he said. Chip however noticed how the tank was paused on a perfect cannon shot on two marine pulling a third to cover.

"Something doesn't seem like a Decepticon attack to me," said Chip, "But I think we need to call in the Autobots."

Techo yelled, "THEN DO IT!"

Chip switched his communication signal to the Autobots' comlink frequency and said, "Optimus, it's Chip. We've got a Cybertronian scorpion tank in the old part of Detroit. No, not like Matt's tank, it's a literal scorpion tank. You better get here before someone could get hurt."

There was a thud and a clang as a marine was tossed into a dumpster that closed on him. A faint voice said, "Too late..."

The scorpion was quickly disposing of the marines. They all ended up being in either trash cans, dumpsters, or dangling from rubble. The scorpion had finished off the last marines and turned to leave only for the Autobots to block the way.

"Alright, that's enough rough-housing," said Optimus, "Now please stop before someone gets hurt." The

scorpion stared at Optimus with interest and a voice came from its mandibles, "Are you Optimus Prime?"

"Erm, yes, I am Optimus Prime," said Optimus.

"Good," said the scorpion. Suddenly, the sides of its body separated to form larger legs as the scorpion legs folded up. As it stood up on the larger legs, the tail repositioned as the upper body spun around at the waist. The scorpion's head split in half to form shoulder guards as the pincers separated into fingers. Then a robotic head with a somewhat snakelike face popped up with a visor above the slit-pupiled eyes. "I am Scorponok Minor of the Elite Guard. I have come to join your group," said the former scorpion, the Elite Guard symbol on his chest.

Techo muttered to chip. "Lynch is not going to like this. The Guard have warrants on him."

"Wait a minute," said Bulkhead, "Since when have they had a Triple Changer in the Elite Guard?"

"I'm guessing he's the latest production of the Science Division like the Jet Twins," said Prowl.

"More like he's actually a Decepticon," said Ratchet, pointing at a small scratched out symbol higher up on Scorponok's chest.

"Ok then, so the Elite Guard's decided to come after Matt personal?" said Techo.

"After who?" asked Scorponok.

"Uh, never mind. But if you're an Autobot, why'd you attack us?"

"It was self-defense," said Scorponok, "You attacked first."

"Bullshit, you were warned," said Techo, pointing.

"I'm afraid I didn't receive your warning," said Scorponok, "I haven't adjusted my comlink for lower wave frequencies yet."

"And why didn't you reveal who you were in the first place?" asked Optimus.

"I did not want to startle the population here, so I kept to my alternate modes to avoid attention," said Scorponok.

"A cobra-headed jet and a giant mechanical scorpion doesn't draw attention?" said Techo incredulously.

"Technorganic actually. You mean the scorpions here are not this large?"

"No, we rarely find scorpions the size of assault APC's," said Techo, in an annoyed voice.

"That still doesn't explain what a member of the Elite Guard is doing here in the first place," said Prowl.

"You mean a Decepticon," said Ratchet.

Scorponok gave Ratchet a stern look and said, "Ex-Decepticon. I've switched over to the Autobots. As for my being here, well, it's a rather personal matter. Is there somewhere less open we can speak?"

Techo shrugged. "We got to find out where everyone landed anyway," he said, grabbing Chip and dragging him along.

--

Meanwhile, Lockdown had landed on an asteroid and was repairing the damages Karnak had done. The mech had caused more damage then had first appeared, the wall he'd exited from had contained critical circuitry.

"Well this is terrific," said Lockdown, "All this mess and I haven't gotten one credit for my troubles."

It hadn't helped that the NSC destroyer he'd almost been shot down by had probably called for backup. The last thing he needed was a fleet combing the sector for him.

"It won't be easy to get that ghost pilot now," said Lockdown, "Getting bounty is one thing, but risking my head for the bounty on is another."

Scalpel scuttled out of a vent, holding a burnt-out conduit. "Vy not call for backup. Surely you are knowing people," he said.

"Last time I teamed up with a partner, I nearly got blown up by a pair of Starscream clones," said Lockdown.

"Zat vas Autobot partner," said Scalpel, "Surely zere are Decepticons to vork vith."

Lockdown looked thoughtful. "There was one person a few years ago...I wonder..." he said, before going over to a comm pod. Using the main signals was out of the question as any NSC ship would home in on him and blast him.

He typed in a message and then the delivery point. The pod then shot out into space. "In a way, I both hoping it'll work and it won't," said Lockdown.

"Vy is zat?" asked Scalpel.

"Let's just say that this whole mess is going be rubbed all over my face," said Lockdown.

--

Luckily there wasn't too many problems, apart from a small near-disaster when they passed a school. Luckily, the only person it panicked was the principal. This was kids we were talking about though.

"You just had to choose the form of a giant scorpion," said Bumblebee.

"It was not a matter of choice," said Scorponok, "It's not like I can change alt modes that easily."

"By the way, how is it that a Triple Changer like you is also a technorganic?" asked Optimus.

Scorponok looked at Bumblebee. "I only talk about that to people close to me. You are not one of those people," he said.

"Uh, I'd leave that subject alone if I were you," said Matt, "He does not look like the type with a testable temper."

Serina came out of the base just as the gang arrived. "Lynch, did you catch those..." she said and stopped.

Scorponok seemed to tense and raise his tail in scorpion instinct. "Scorponok, it's ok, she's friendly," said Matt.

"Like hell, I remember this guy from Cheyanne spaceport," said Serina icily, raising her blaster arm.

"What? You know this guy?" asked Matt.

"Probably back from when I used to be totally technological," said Scorponok as he changed into his robot mode.

"I never forget a murdering tincan," said Serina.

Matt realized he did partially recognize the robot form. "Oh great, next it'll be that weird German bot with the spinning head."

"You are not the only one who's done things that you've regretted ever since," said Scorponok simply before walking past.

Serina glared and grabbed him before punching him. "Now we're even...for Paul and Viper," she said.

Scorponok got up and said, "Fair enough."

"Um, perhaps now's not a good time to ask why you've come here," said Optimus.

"No, no, I'm fine," said Scorponok, "I'm ready to talk. Well, it may assure you to know that Sentinel Prime's safely made it to Cybertron with his prisoners."

Optimus nodded. "That's good to hear. I am also happy to report that the NSC ambassador is here."

Scorponok glanced down at Matt and said, "The ghost pilot, I assume? I had expected a more solidly-built human."

"Bite me, scorpion boy!" yelled Matt, before transforming to full dragon, bringing himself eye to eye. "So there."

Scorponok sighed and hit Matt on the head. Chloe sighed. "That was kinda inevitable."

Scorponok said, "Sentinel Prime will not be happy with the choice of ambassador."

"Speaking of which, how is doing as temporary Magnus?" asked Optimus.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I was rather hoping that Rodimus Minor would be the temp Magnus," said Scorponok, "We were friends at the Elite Guard Academy and he showed much promise. If it weren't for that Cosmic Rust attack by that lowlife Oil Slick..."

Matt stopped. "What...THE Sentinel prime is the boss? The same Sentinel prime command codenamed 'Glitchhead'?"

"Indeed," said Scorponok, "That's the reason why I'm here. Sentinel's bureaucracy is too strict for me. Not to mention me being part organic and a former Deception will mean he might eventually find some excuse to have me arrested."

"Oh great, the peace talks are toast and I'm not even there yet," said Matt gloomily.

"So, you're saying you ran away from Cybertron?" asked Prowl.

"Well, that is a way you could phrase it," said Scorponok, "I had heard about how your team lives among organics and I thought I would be able to fit in here."

Matt and company went silent. "Yeaaah..." Matt said.

"Well... we aren't actually recruiting at the moment," said Optimus, "and we don't really know you. Perhaps we should put you on a trial run, let us see how good an Autobot you are."

"But he used to work for evil...EVIL, I TELL YOU!" said Matt, in a paranoid voice.

Scorponok gave Matt an annoyed look and said, "I'm willing to show that I have indeed switched sides. Perhaps there's some charity I could do for you."

"Not PR duty," said Bumblebee, "He'll scare all the humans away."

"And he is not touching my tanks, they're new," said Matt, sulkily.

"Actually, I did briefly served as drill sergeant for boot camp, especially regarding the Jet Twins' flight training," said Scorponok, "Perhaps there's a group I could train?"

The groups both looked thoughtful. In Matt's brain the following process could have been heard by a psychic. 'Those Dinobots need training. If they learn not to blow crap up, maybe my tanks won't spend so long in the repair shop? And if he gets fried, no biggy...IT'S BRILLIANT.' Sadly all ideas sound brilliant when filtered via paranoia.

"Now that you mentioned it, there is a group of Autobots with beast modes that could use some workout," said Matt.

The others looked at him suspiciously. Matt's ideas rarely went to plan. "They're on an island in the bay. You can't miss it. It's got a huge section missing," said Matt, grinning evilly.

"Excellent," said Scorponok, "Would you care to show me this island?"

Matt grinned even more evilly. "Let me give you the directions," he said, darkly, before giggling evilly.

--

A few minutes later, Scorponok and Matt arrived on Dinobot Island. Matt rode in Dune Runner. Scorponok transformed from his jet mode to his robot mode and looked around. "This island seems so tranquil."

"Wait for it," giggled Matt evilly before running for cover, laughing madly.

"Eh, Scorp, ya do know dat Matt is tryin' ta set ya up, right?" said Dune Runner.

"Of course," said Scorponok, "I'm a former Decepticon, I know evil laughter when I hear it."

"TRAITOR!" yelled Matt from cover, peering out., He'd got a helmet from somewhere. "HEY, DINO-DUFUS'S, INTRUDER ALERT! MAKE WITH THE BLASTING...FWEEEEE!" he called.

Scorponok looked at Dune Runner and asked, "So, what kind of bots are these?"

"Uh, very territorial ones," said Dune Runner.

Matt was about to give up when he saw a stone vibrate across the ground. "About time," he said.

Suddenly, Grimlock came charging out of the forest. "Intruder!" yelled Grimlock, "Dinobots destroy!" Snarl and the pterodactyl also came out of the forest.

"THERE! GET HIM! OUCH!" yelled Matt, cut off as Grimlock trampled him. "Victory...is mine!" he winced.

Grimlock roared and charged Scorponok. "Wait a minute!" called Scorponok, "I'm not here to fight you."

"Yes he is...make with the fireballs," said Matt, climbing out the footprint he had been in.

Grimlock roared and charged the two bots. Scorponok jumped out of the way before Grimlock knocked Dune Runer over. "Ok, maybe a display of force is necessary," said Scorponok as his arms opened up into pincers before shooting out several missiles.

Matt laughed insanely as they fought...until a missile hit him in the face. "Winning feels alot like losing," he said before falling over.

The Dinobots were pushed backwards by the missile assault, but they changed into their robot modes and charged again. Scorponok sighed and said, "Looks we're going to have to do this the hard way." He waited until Grimlock was within grabbing distance before grabbing him and judo flipping him into a tree. Snarl tried to grab Scorponok only to be karate chopped on both sides of the neck, knocking him down.

The pterodactyl bot swung his mace at Scorponok, but Scorponok caught it. He then started swinging the mace, with the Dinobot still clinging to it. Once he got enough momentum, he let the mace go. Matt got up in time to see the Dinobot about to land on him. "Oh shit," he muttered and pulled his helmet over his eyes.

The pteranodon landed right on top of Matt. "Ow...please move prehistoric bumper..." moaned Matt. The pteranodon looked down and pulled Matt out from under before flicking him into the lake. "Well...it's an improvement," he said, surfacing.

Scorponok walked over to the lakeside and said, "You were right, Matt. These three are powerful warriors, but completely unrefined. I believe I can whip them into proper fighter shape. Oh, and by the way, the next time you try to set someone up, don't let your feelings get above the surface."

"Bite me, scorpion boy!" yelled Matt.

Scorponok frowned and said, "You really ought to get out of that water."

"Or what? I'm gonna catch pneumonia?" asked Matt.

"If by pneumonia, you mean that odd aquatic creatures than yes," said Scorponok.

Mat turned to see a dozen strange eel things staring at him. "Oh hell," he said before they lunged at him. Scorponok watched before watching Matt literally run across the water, screaming with one of the eels sucking at the back of his head.

"This is a very strange planet," commented Scorponok.

"GETITOFF!" Screamed Matt before running into a rock and knocking himself out

"I better fish him out before he drowns," said Scorponok as he began wading into the water.

--

Lockdown was waiting with finite patience. "C'mon, how long does it take for a messenger pod to get there?" he muttered.

Finally his comm came to life of a stealthed frequency and a Cybertronian appeared. "Lockdown...and why would the 'master hunter' call little old me?"

Lockdown glared. "Hello, Nightbird."

During his brief times on Earth, Lockdown had learned that the humans on the eastern side of the continent known as Asia had their own martial arts, including ninjitsu. Now that he thought about it, Nightbird did remind him of Earth ninjas, thought he wasn't sure they had female ninjas. Her head, the only part he could see on the comm or wanted to, had a helmet somewhat like a samurai's with a three-pronged shape on the forehead. Her lower face was covered by a face guard leaving only a pair of red eyes in the darkness beneath the helmet to be seen.

"So...what can I do for you Lockdown?" said Nightbird, her tone of voice making Lockdown sure she was smirking behind her mask.

"Well, uh, you remember that competition we had regarding the ghost pilots?" said Lockdown.

"Oh, I heard that. I also saw that the contract was re-activated. You got him?" said Nightbird, sounding disbelieving.

"Er, I almost got him," said Lockdown, "Only this last pilot had a lot of backup, NSC and Autobot. And it's too many for me to handle by myself."

Nightbird burst out laughing. "I always knew your 'guns blazing' attitude would get you into trouble one day," she said

Lockdown gritted his teeth and said, "I do not go in 'guns blazing'. But my usual style is not going to cope with these conditions. That is why I am asking for your...help." He looked like he just downed some crackshaft oil.

"Hah, you think I'm stupid enough to take on the NSC navy? I ran recon contracts during Megatron's run in with them and have no wish to be in stasis lock," said Nightbird.

"Well, it's not just Megatron's bounty I'm after," said Lockdown, "Another client promised me a very large reward if I can capture several ghost mechs and the command codes to control them. If you help me out, I'll split the reward."

"Are the words 'retirement fund' programmed into your processor?" said Lockdown.

Nightbird said, "I'll be there as soon as I can...partner," before she cut the comm.

"Vell, zat vasn't so bad," said Scalpel.

"Not yet," said Lockdown, "I've practically signed away all gloating rights."

"Not to be mentioning that she iz probably as trustvorthy as the original Starscream," added Scalpel sagely.

"I know she won't try anything until after we've got the prize," said Lockdown, "It's not my life on the line here, it's my pride."

"Look on ze bright side, maybe ze NSC vill kill her before you must be payink her," said Scalpel.

"Unfortunately, I think that's just a pipe dream," moaned Lockdown.

--

Draco, Chip and NegaMorph had gone to Dinobot island to check on Scorponok and Matt. They got a bit of a shock to see Matt, almost black with soot and his hat host to a small candle flame. "DON'T ask," he said angrily.

"So, how did the Dinobots react to Scorpio?" asked Chip.

Matt turned to look at Chip who stepped back. Here was the gaze of somebody who had handglided over hell. "Fine...I was another story," said Matt, his eye twitching violently.

"Hmm, so asides from greetings, has he done any training yet?" asked NegaMorph.

Matt grabbed NegaMorph, in his stress not noticing the weight. "WHAT DO YOU THINK?" he yelled before sobbing on NegaMorph's shoulder. "They only shot meeeee…" he wailed.

Draco looked around and said, "Hey, where are giant transforming robot buddies?"

Matt turned to look at Draco. "Follow the smoke," he said before cackling insanely.

"Ok, we'll let you sit here and, uh, simmer," said Draco, "We'll be back to tell you how much progress Scorponok's getting done."

Matt had still not let go of NegaMorph, despite the experiment's best efforts. "Erm...guys? I got a clinger here," he said as Draco and Chip walked off.

"Don't worry, he lets go if he's been dragged through dirt for about 30 feet," said Chip.

NegaMorph glared looking down at how Matt was holding him off the ground. "I hate you guys," he muttered.

As Draco and Chip were walking, Draco said, "You'd think finding giant robotic animals would be easy."

"I'm betting when we find Dune Runner, we'll find the rest," said Chip, "He should be even easier to find."

Just then, they heard a sound like an engine stalling. They both looked to see a rather battered-looking dune buggy roll over to them before transforming. "Hey guys," said Dune Runner, his right lower arm falling off, "Dem Dinobots don't like too many robots on deir turf."

Draco said weakly, "I can see that."

"So, you think they would mind small alien creatures?" asked Chip.

"I don't know," said Dune Runner as he plugged his arm back in, "But I t'ink you might not want dem spottin' you. Try hidin' in de trees."

A fireball on that note blew the whole top off a tree. "Only not right now..." said Dune Runner.

"Uh, you think that means their lessons are going well?" asked Draco.

"Only one way to find out," said Chip, "Let's...stick to the shadows."

The group crept along until they found where the fireball had come from. Scorponok was in a clearing with the Dinobots. They were all currently in robot mode. "Um, ok," said Scorponok, "Your firepower's excellent. We just need to work on your aim."

One of the Dinobots turned and said, "Grimlock no be told how to fight. Grimlock know how to fight."

"True, but you do not know how to fight with full potential," said Scorponok, "You cannot just barrel straight through everything. It may work well on Autobots, but Decepticons are tougher."

"Scorpion bot all talk. Grimlock think scorpion bot weak," said Grimlock.

Scorponok's eye ridge raised up slightly and said, "You're saying you want a demonstration?"

"Grimlock beat scorpion bot easy," said Grimlock before switching to dinosaur mode.

Scorponok looked at the other two and asked, "Do you share his opinion?" The two of them transformed to dinosaur mode and let out challenging cries. "Very well, I suppose I shall have to demonstrate," said Scorponok before switching to scorpion mode.

Snarl stepped forward first and snorted, pawing the ground. Scorponok's mandibles chittered as he raised up his tail. Draco and Chip were watching from the safety of a nearby tree limb. "I hope NegaMorph gets here," said Chip, "He's gonna miss all the action."

"That and we need him to change into Kernel to pop this popcorn we brought," said Draco.

Just then, there was the sound of a yell growing louder before NegaMorph landed on a nearby branch. "Matt's having a...little moment," said NegaMorph.

"Oh, you got here just in time," said Draco.

Scorponok waited as Snarl charged him before moving aside. Snarl, unable to stop hit the tree the experiments were in. The experiments just nearly fell out. "Ok, maybe we should move to a different tree," said Chip.

Snarl snorted and charged Scorponok again. This time, Scorponok grabbed Snarl's horns with his pincers. The two of them got into a pushing match before Scorponok twisted his arms and flipped Snarl onto his back. He brought his stinger down to his exposed belly, but stopped just before striking.

Grimlock said, "Scorpion bot lucky. Grimlock destroy lucky scorpion bot!" before charging at Scorponok. But then the pteranodon bot squawked and Grimlock paused. "Ok, you fight scorpion bot, me Grimlock save best for last."

"Agreed," said Scorponok before jumping up into the air and flipping over. His legs folded and connected to form thin wings while his pincers closed and his arms angled so that the thrusters on the elbows were pointing backwards. The spots where his eyes were flipped to reveal extra thrusters and the two poison sacs on his tail flipped forward and connected at the tip to form a cobra's head, completing his transformation to cobra jet mode.

The experiments clapped. "Impressive," said NegaMorph before looking down to see Matt, happily wandering into the clearing, still on planet insanity.

"Uh, shouldn't we warn him?" asked Chip.

NegaMorph plucked a pinecone from the branch he was in and muttered, "Matt, watch out," before dropping the pinecone onto Matt's head.

Matt just wandered forward until he bumped into Grimlock. He looked up and said, "Hello, giant lizard." Grimlock looked at him before sitting down on top of him.

The experiments winced in sympathy, even NegaMorph. "Ooooh...he'll feel that when he wakes up," said Chip.

Meanwhile, Scorponok and the pteranodon were fighting up in the sky. As the experiments watched, Draco asked, "Did that guy ever give us his name?"

"I don't think he's spoken at all," said Chip.

The two robots made swipes past each other, trying to knock their opponent from the sky. The pteranodon opened his beak and spat out flames. Scorponok barrel-rolled aside and dived downwards. Then he went straight up underneath the pteranodon and blasted him with a venom blast from his cobra mouth straight to his chest. The pteranodon screeched before spiraling down to land on the ground, out cold. Scorponok landed neatly in front of him.

Grimlock grunted and said, "Them weaker, but me Grimlock strong." He stood up and transformed to robot mode, wielding his flaming sword.

Matt could be seen underneath in an imprint. Luckily the ground had been soft. "What hit me?" he moaned.

"A mechanical T-Rex's backside," said Draco.

"Ok...coulda...been worse," said Matt before falling unconscious.

Grimlock roared angrily before charging at Scorponok. Scorponok returned to robot mode and shook his head. "Such lousy form," he said. Scorponok easily parried or dodged blows from the frustrated Dinobot. "You are too obvious in your attacks: too much offence and not enough defense," he commented, "Brute strength can only get you so far. A Decepticon would easily be able to get around your offense and take you out. Like this!" Scorponok swung his tail and struck Grimlock in the chest, throwing him backwards.

Matt had just got out his hole when Grimlock landed an inch from him. "Nnnngh," Matt managed as Grimlock roared and charged Scorponok again.

Scorponok sighed before lifting his leg up. As he predicted, Grimlock ran right into it, his foot making contact with his gut. Grimlock groaned in pain before Scorponok said, "You are a powerful warrior, but still an amateur." He judo-flipped his opponent and made Grimlock land hard on his back, causing the Dinobot leader to let out a low moan of pain.

Matt was still staring straight ahead when Scorponok saw him. "Ah...Captain...captain?" he said when Matt failed to respond.

"Niii...niii..." sputtered Matt.

"Uh, great job, Scorponok," said Draco, "You really showed him who's boss."

NegaMorph had wandered over to Matt. "And I think you broke Matt."

"Oh, I hope I haven't scared him too much," said Scorponok, "I was only trying to give a demonstration."

NegaMorph poked Matt once more then took his wallet. "What? He shouldn't have thrown me," he said to the others.

--

Lockdown had moved his ship back to Earth's orbit. He stayed on the dark side of the moon. The NSC were still there and they were probably still looking for him. Lockdown watched as another two starfuries flew by, obviously looking for him. "Where is she?" he muttered, once he was sure the starfuries had not seen him.

"I am sure she vill show up when least expected," said Scalpel, "Incidentally, vill you still require me to remove ze ghost pilot's brain, because Strika vill be wantink me back."

"Collecting brains now? Isn't that a bit messy? Plus the noise when it's being taken out." said Nightbird from behind them, making the two Cybertronians jump.

Lockdown turned and glared at the purple, grey, and black femme. "I hate it when you do that," said Lockdown.

"What? I thought you couldn't be snuck up on," said Nightbird, "Are you losing your touch?"

"Cut the jokes. I'm having enough trouble as it is." said Lockdown, pointing as another trio of starfuries flew over the crater Lockdowns ship was in, one shining a searchlight in briefly before moving on.

Nightbird looked up at the starfuries and said, "So those are the watchdogs you have to get around?"

"Yeah...them and a destroyer class sitting on the other side of the moon." said Lockdown.

"Hmm, so you need little old me to disable to their sensors long enough for us to get to that planet?" said Nightbird.

"I doubt you'd get aboard. The ship's one of these fighter boats," said Lockdown.

"Hmm, well, it's not the first time I've had to pass an orbital fence like this," said Nightbird. She opened a compartment on her side and pulled out some metal balls that were relatively the size of marbles. "Once detonated, they'll create a smokescreen and shut down nearby sensors. Perfect for a quick escape," said Nightbird.

"Should be simple," said Lockdown.

--

When Draco, Chip, and NegaMorph brought Matt back, Chloe could barely believe their story. "That guy took down all three Dinobots by himself?" she said incredulously.

"Not exactly 'took down'," said Chip, "He just gave them some discipline to show them who's boss."

"It's true. I saw it," said Matt, wincing as his ribs ached.

"But those guys are the toughest Autobots on this planet," said Chloe.

"Not anymore," said Draco, "I think Scorponok's taken that title."

"Has anyone seen my spleen?" said Matt vaguely, sadly ignored.

Chloe however turned on her comm. "WARDEN. You found that bounty hunter yet?" she asked.

"I believe so, ma'am," said WARDEN, "We just got a signal that-" WARDEN's voice suddenly cut off and was replaced by static.

"WARDEN? Come in," she said, tapping her comm, which displayed the message 'Source jammed'. Chloe swore in splitter and said, "That probably means he's invading right now."

Matt said, "Great...didn't he learn last time?" before trying to call the Autobots. Unfortunately, he got static there too.

"Oh come on," said Draco, "How could he be jamming our comlink down here?"

"There might be one still open," said Matt before entering in a code. Serina's voice came on. "Uh...what is it? I was having a pleasant sleep mode."

"Serina, remember the guy who's kept you in storage for the last century or so?" asked Matt.

"That overgrown jumped-up Lego set?" said Serina's tone, gaining a nasty edge.

"Good, you do remember, I think he's coming back for round 2," said Matt.

"I'LL KILL HIM!" yelled Serina before the call ended.

"Well, we got Serina's help," said Matt, "Now if we got a little help from the others."

"How? We're closer to Dinobot Island when we are to the tower." said Chloe.

"Uh, what are the chances of Scorponok of having finished training those terrible lizards?" asked Matt.

"I think we should practice the age old saying. 'Don't turn down help where it can be found'," said Chloe.

"Uh, but what if they won't help?" asked Chip, "They turned down Optimus and he was a 20 foot robot."

"If Scorponok can wipe the floor with them, he can get them to help. NOW GET MOVING!" yelled Chloe at the group, making them all jump.

"Ok, ok, uh, can we take a boat this time?" asked Matt, "My ribs are still sore from being sat on by T-Wrecks."

"Don't you mean Rex?" asked Draco.

Matt said darkly, "I know what I meant."

--

Scorponok was taking a short rest from training when he saw a speedboat, apparently dragging part of a docking bollard behind it, heading for shore. An argument could be made out. "...said that you hadn't unchained it properly, NegaMorph," said Matt's voice.

Scorponok stood up and said, "What are you doing back here? I thought Matt you said that Matt needed first aid."

"Actually, what I said is 'We better get Matt out of here or those Dinobots are going to need first aid', easy mistake," said Chip.

Matt said, "Where are the little fire hazards, by the way?" looking around nervously

"They're doing exercises right now," said Scorponok.

"Well, we kinda got company coming. The murdering and kidnapping kind," said Matt, innocently.

Scorponok frowned and said, "Decepticons?"

"Not quite, but just as bad," said Matt.

"Bounty hunters." said Scorponok in the same way someone might say 'cockroach'.

"Mhm," said Matt, "One by the name of Lockdown. You heard of him?"

"Only by reputation," said Scorponok, "And not a very nice one at that."

"He's screwed up the comm. Some help is coming but we need backup fast," said Matt

"I see," said Scorponok, "Well, since it's one of him, I suppose I can handle it myself. I'm not quite sure the Dinobots are ready for combat yet."

Matt sighed. "Ok...I suppose, sincve you're helping...I should apologise for trying to get the dinobots to eat you." he said.

"Out of curiosity, why was that?" asked Scorponok, "Was it because of this?" He poked the scratched out Decepticon insignia on his chest.

"Yes...plus the fact your kind murdered the other ghosts." said Matt.

Scorponok glared at Matt and said, "This didn't get scratched out by some battle. I did it myself. You're in no more a position to question what side I'm on than I you."

"I'm on my side." said Matt coldly. Scorponox returned the glare and said "So am I."

"Uh, can we leave off the macho posturing?" said Chloe, "We've got an evil muscle car to deal with."

Matt nodded. "Has Lockdown ever done signal jamming before?" he asked.

"I don't know," said Scorponok, "I never met him myself."

Chloe said "Did this Lockdown ever work with anyone in the past? Anyone he might have called to help?"

"Hmm, well, I did hear he had an old rival," said Scorponok, "Some kinda ninja bot."

"Oh, you mean Prowl?" asked Lilo.

"No, no," said Matt, "I think he meant an older- WAH!!! What are you doing here?"

Megan and Gary came out from behind a tree. "She wanted to come exploring," said Megan.

Matt jumped "Gah...what part of 'stay on the ship?' was not understood?"

"What? And mess the exciting stuff?" asked Megan.

"Wait, wasn't Jumba supposed to be teaching you guys?" asked Chloe.

"Er, he's in the can," said Gary.

"Well, he can't have to use the bathroom that long," said Chip.

"Er, not quite," said Lilo.

--

Jumba banged on the inside of the tin can he was in. "This is not how we treated teachers back at Evil Genius University! We placed them inside glass jars!"

--

Matt stopped. "Ooookay...I don't think I want to know the details now."

"You are not joining us in battle, now go do your homework!" snapped Chloe.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to be telling that to your kids someday?" asked Draco.

Chloe turned on Draco who managed to say "I DIDN'T MEAN..." before Chloe kicked him a good 12 feet out into the lake.

"Are females always like this on this planet?" asked Scorponok.

Matt was about to give a smart comment when he caught Chloe's eye. "No comment," he said neutrally.

Scorponok decided not to dive into the matter and said, "I think we should remain on this island. There will be fewer chances for civilian lives to be endangered if Lockdown comes here."

"That's a good plan. People freak out over the smallest things," said Matt

"Not to mention we have a field advantage here," said Chloe, "I don't think Lockdown will be able to drive around on this island very well."

"Erm...does anyone hear that?" said Matt, cocking his head. The faint whine of jet engines could be heard getting louder by the second. The group looked upwards to see a small triangular-shaped jet coming towards them, its primary colors were purple, grey, and black. Matt shielded his eyes and said, "Looks like a Nighthawk stealth fighter."

Scorponok lowered his visor over his eyes and looked. "Then why does it have a black and green muscle car strapped to its roof?" he asked.

Matt looked again, changing his eyes to his draconic ones to see better. "Oh, hell no," he said, recognizing the car.

Suddenly, the muscle car detached and fell down to the ground. It shifted as it fell and landed in robot mode. "Remember me, kid?" said Lockdown, his hook glinting in the sunlight.

"Sadly yes," said Matt rudely.

Then the Nighthawk flew close to the ground. The front half of it split into four pieces. The bottom quarters swiveled down and twisted to form legs while the upper half moved to the sides to form arms, with the wings on the shoulders and the cockpit halves forming daggers. The middle section unfolded into a feminine form while a head with a samurai's helmet popped out. When it landed, it was now a femme with a distinctive ninja look to her.

"Oh goody, two morons for the price of one," said Matt.

Scorponok's eyes widened in disbelief. "I don't believe it," he said, "It's Nightbird."

"Who?" asked Chloe.

"One of the most feared assassins on the Decepticon side," said Scorponok.

"Oh...look, about that 'moron' comment..." began Matt.

Nightbird glanced down at Matt and said, "This is the ghost pilot? He's a skinny twig, even for a human."

"Oi!" yelled Matt, angrily

"Without his mech, he should be easy to bag," said Lockdown.

Matt smirked. Sometimes life handed you wonderful cues. "Now I wouldn't say that..." said Matt before going dragon.

"Hmm, this should be interesting," said Nightbird as the cockpit kibble snicked into place to form daggers.

"Matt, I wouldn't challenge her so-" started Scorponok.

"Stay back," said Matt, "I'm dealing with her myself." Then Matt growled, plasma flames flickering out his mouth. "Back off, I'm not some easy contract," he said.

"You better not be," said Nightbird, "I'd hate to find out that I was dragged to this backwater planet for something trivial."

Matt snarled and spat a cluster of blasts at the cocky fembot To his surprise, Nightbird was able to deflect the blasts with her daggers. "Can't you shoot straighter than that?" she said. Matt spat another that seemingly went wide. Nightbird gave Matt an odd look and said, "Is this supposed to be a joke?"

Matt seemed to not be listening, his eyes glowing strongly. A second later the 'wild shot' hit Nightbird in the back, exploding violently Nightbird staggered forward with the hit.

"I told you he wasn't that easy," said Lockdown.

"Indeed," said Nightbird, "Perhaps a different tactic then." She pressed a part on her belt which caused the panel to open. She pulled out several throwing stars and started flinging them at Matt.

Matt raised a plasma field while taking off to avoid the shots. "You have to try harder," he taunted. Just then, one of the throwing stars sliced through Matt's side. Matt winced in pain and surprise. He didn't think they'd be sharp enough to get through his thick scaly skin. "So you CAN shoot straight," he said, trying to hide the fact that the star had hurt so much.

Nightbird seemed to smirk and said, "Oh, I can do more than that," she said. She pulled out a pair of metal handles from her side satchels. She clicked them on, causing energy sais to appear. Matt growled again, backwinging to get some space.

Then he felt a twinge of pain from his side that seemed to be spreading. "Oh, did I forget to mention I lace my throwing stars with poison?" said Nightbird, "Don't worry, it wasn't my lethal brand, it'll just slow you down. Might take out a few of your powers too."

Matt snarled, his eyes flickering solid white. "It takes more than that," he said before spitting a column of plasma at her.

Nightbird rolled out of the way before saying, "Perhaps not, but the more your spark is beating, the quicker the poison spreads and the weaker you'll get."

Matt growled, circling Nightbird before swooping at her, his claws raking deep furrows in her armor before he spun for another pass. As he flew close to her again, one of her sais cut a jagged tear in his right wing membrane. Matt roared in pain before crashing into the ground, out cold.

Nightbird sheathed her sais and said, "That was easy. I can't believe you had so much trouble."

Lockdown frowned and said, "I had a strategic disadvantage. Let's just bag him and go."

Scorponok walked forward. "He is going nowhere with you." he said, readying his weapons

Lockdown looked at Scorponok before noticed the insignias on him. "Well, well, a Decepticon deserter," said Lockdown, "And here I thought Decepticons didn't have the gears to quit on Megatron."

"I choose my own path," said Scorponok before pointing at Matt, "And his path is not to follow you."

"How noble," said Lockdown, "But not smart. It's two-to-one against you."

"Make dat two-to-two," said Dune Runner.

Lockdown barely looked at him. "Beat it, shrimp. I've got bigger game to deal with." Dune Runner settled for shooting Lockdown's foot. Lockdown yelped and clutched his foot.

"Chloe, take your brother and hide him the forest," said Scorponok, "We'll keep these two busy."

Chloe looked at Matt who was about twice her size at the moment. "Might be hard," she said.

"That's why you've got us," said Draco as he held up Matt's lower end. Chloe turned to dragon to help haul her brother to safety. Chip, NegaMorph, Lilo, Megan, and Gary also pitched in.

Lockdown saw the group hauling Matt away, but Scorponok and Dune Runner were in his way. "Not this time," he muttered. The car roof on his chest opened up and a microscope flew out of it. The microscope changed as it fell until Scalpel landed on the ground. The Decepticon field medic spotted the group disappearing into the forest and scuttled after them.

The spiderbots meanwhile had hitched a ride on the boat the gang had used to reach Dinobot Island, curious about what the big deal was. They were surprised when the gang came out hauling their boss in his alternate form. Deciding to find out what the trouble was (as well as have some fun) the spiderbots started scuttling towards the forest after them.

--

Scalpel, however, was not far behind, now taking a few potshots at the group with darts full of unknown substances.

Draco ducked his head as a dart nearly hit his ear. "What the heck was that?" he asked.

"I dunno...keep moving," said Chloe.

The spiderbots however could see exactly who was doing such things, having gotten up a tree. This was uncalled for. If anyone was gonna zap Draco, it was going to be THEM!

NegaMorph suddenly paused and said, "Did you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Chip.

Suddenly, Scalpel landed on top of Matt and shouted, "Surrender ze ghost pilot."

The spiderbots, still watching, thought for a second that it was another spiderbot. However they then remembered that they had no audio units for English...especially English in didgy German accents.

However, the experiments didn't know that. "AH! SPIDERBOT! DECEPTICON SPIDERBOT!" shouted Draco.

The spiderbots snorted at this. They would show Draco the difference between the Decepticon and a spiderbot. With that they jumped down, landing lightly around Scalpel. "Huh? Vat is zis?" said Scalpel as he was ambushed by what looked like several smaller and less sophisticated versions of himself.

The spiderbots all got glowing optics. At the same time the tree canopy lit up with the rest of the spiderbots. The lead unit connected to Scalpel's mind, sending a text message. 'Who the hell do you think you are, impersonating US?'

"Vat are you talking about? Who are you?" demanded Scalpel.

'We are your worst nightmare. You're touching the boss without permission' was the sent message.

Scalpel gave the glowing optics an annoyed look. "Bug off. Zis dragon creature is going to Megatron," he snapped.

'Bye' was the sent message and a small muzzle folded out of a hatch on the top of the lead bot. Scalpel laughed before seeing that Matt's gang had all dived for nearby cover. A second later a pulse blast sent Scalpel flying back into a tree trunk hard enough to be embedded. The rest of the spiderbots slowly advanced on the luckless Decepticon.

As Scalpel's processor was trying to reboot itself, it picked a long-forgotten file about the rare Cybertronian animal species that lived on Cybertron. In particular, the spiderbot, which inspired his design, which were said to be surprisingly dangerous because of their near indestructibility and are generally considered insane.

"Oh crap," he muttered as the spiderbots began climbing up or in the case of the bots already in the tree, down towards him. Several of them had folded out cutting tools or more of the lasers. However, Scalpel wasn't planning on going down without some success. So he activated his emergency subfrequency comlink and sent a message to Strika, regarding payback against the mercenary band that had defeated her team.

A second later a beam sliced his uplink off. Another spiderbot scanned his audio unit. Another message said, 'Now what should we do with you?'

"Er, you vouldn't hurt me," said Scalpel, "Ve are practically cousins."

'No, you're more fun online' was the message. If Scalpel weren't a robot, he probably would have broken out in a sweat as the spiderbots converged on him.

The gang watched as the spiderbots went to town on Scalpel, removing various mobility systems. "Damn...they're worse than Matt on a bad day," said Chloe.

"Speaking of which," said NegaMorph, "I don't think Matt's having a good time right now." Matt was still unconscious, but the cuts from his wing and side was still bleeding.

The spiderbots pulled the decapitated Scalpel out of the tree and sent a simple message 'Cure the poison or we get the can opener'

"It is not mien," said Scalpel, "Ask Nightbird, she vas ze vun who poisoned him."

'We know you are lying. Decepticons are famous for it. Do something that impresses us or die,' was the cold message.

"I do not vork vith organics," said Scalpel, "My talents are purely mechanical."

'Wrong answer...bye bye,' said the message and one of the spiderbots started cutting towards Scalpel's spark chamber.

"VAIT! I know something that might help," said Scalpel.

The spiderbot stopped cutting before backing up. 'Make it REALLY good,' was the message sent.

"Nightbird commissioned me to make zat poison. She wanted to batches, vun for catching and vun for killing. I could create something that vill help him recover," said Scalpel.

'Then get to work...be happy...now we'll post you back with your spark attached,' was the message.

Scalpel groaned and thought to himself, 'I hope Team Charr got my message. I really vish to make zem pay for zis.'

--

Meanwhile, Dune Runner and Scorponok were trying their best to hold Lockdown and Nightbird back. However, the two bounty hunters were good and Scorponok had several injuries while Dune Runner was becoming very tired.

"Want to give up yet?" said Lockdown, cockily.

"Not...yet..." groaned Dune Runner. The Allspark shard inside healed his injuries, but his stamina was something completely different.

"Fine, kid, have it your own way," said Lockdown, charging Dune Runner and punching him in the chest. Dune Runner was sent bowling backwards and landed on his chest with a groan. Lockdown put his foot on Dune Runner's back and said, "You know, kid, I was pretty impressed by your hoverboard last time. I think I've the perfect spot for it on my trophy wall."

Just then the sound of more jet engines could be heard. "Nightbird, your sparkdamned jammer wore off," said Lockdown, thinking the sounds were incoming starfuries.

Nightbird looked up and said, "Nope, I think we've finally got the backup to get past these two." A purple Cybertronian jet was flying towards the island, followed by a large dark green military helicopter carrying a maroon and orange Cybertronian wheeled tank. The three vehicles landed on the shore and transformed into Cyclonus, Blackout, and Strika.

Scorponok turned to see the newcomers and glared. "YOU!" he said

"Scalpel's signal came from here," said Strika, "He better not be lying or he vill-" She was cut off when Scorponok knocked Nightbird out of his way and charged into Blackout, causing the titan to fall over.

"What in the Milky Way is that?" asked Cyclonus.

Scorponok turned to glare at him and said, "Don't you recognize me? But then again, you guys always did turn me down, until Megatron ordered you to get rid of me."

Strika's optics widened in surprise. "Sandstorm?" she said.

"It's Scorponok now, Strika," snapped Scorponok, "Thanks to you lot."

Cyclonus also looked surprised. "How were you able to survive?" he asked.

"Not easily, I can tell you that," said Scorponok, "But I did get a souvenir." He transformed into scorpion mode and clacked his pincers menacingly.

"Techno-organic...one was almost too much," said Cyclonus.

"I thought something seemed odd about him," said Nightbird. Then she remembered why she was on this island. "Time to collect that bounty."

There was the sound of more jet engines. "Now what?" said Lockdown, his temper starting to fray before a pair of cluster missiles hit the group.

Serina landed on the shore and said, "Oh, don't tell me you've started the fun without me."

Lockdown backed up. "Great,,, ghost mech."

Strika turned to Blackout who was getting back up and said, "Blackout, get rid of that thing."

Serina shot an ion blast into Blackout's face without turning before aiming a missile at Cyclonus. "Amateurs," she said

Scorponok let out an angry hiss and said, "Back off, death shell. They're mind."

"Really? You look like you fought a wrecking ball and lost," said Serina.

Scorponok growled and said, "You don't understand. This is personal."

"Will it count as personal when they've torn out your CPU?" said Serina

Just then, Blackbird snuck up behind Serina and stabbed her engines with her daggers. "A ghost mech in the hand is worth a ghost pilot in the bush," said Nightbird.

"Oh, shut up," said Serina before grabbing Nightbird and punching her in the face. A panel on Lockdown's arm opened up and started spraying foam at Serina. Serina didn't pay any attention to it until it started hardening. "HEY!" she yelled, "Riot foam is cheating!"

"Fair play isn't one of my interests," said Lockdown. Serina glared and started to struggle with the foam.

Scorponok was about to go help her when Cyclonus kicked him onto his back. He placed one foot on his belly and readied his swords. "This time, I'll make sure I watch your Spark extinguish," said Cyclonus as he raised his swords.

Serina was just about to get free when she said, "Is that an earthquake?" The ground was indeed shaking

Suddenly, the Dinobots charged out of the forest. Grimlock looked around and shouted, "Decepticons! Dinobots attack!"

Serina and Scorponok watched with minor interest as the Dinobots started trying to fry the Decepticons and mercenaries with minor success.

"Get lost, I got enough trophies here," said Lockdown as he tried to shoot Snarl. The triceratops dodged the blasts before he butted into Lockdown.

Serina, in a very Matt-like manner said, "It brings a tear of joy to the sensor."

Lockdown got back up and said, "I'll teach you to mess with me." He grabbed Snarl's horns and prepared to toss him, but Snarl reared up and threw Lockdown backwards.

Serina smirked as Lockdown landed at her feet. "Having trouble?" she asked cheekily.

Cyclonus watched the action for a minute before sticking one of his swords through Scorponok's tail, pinning it to the ground. "I'll deal with you later," he said before turning to jet mode and flying towards the Dinobots.

Serina by now had started to crack the foam holding her. "You know, I heard the Dinobots had as much discipline as well...me. Whoever taught them was a pro," she said

Dune Runner was starting to get back on his feet. "Yep," he said, "Scorponok sure knows what he's doin' when it comes ta trainin'."

Serina turned to look at the pinned Autobot. "Yeah, he should lose the tail though, too much of a liability," she said before finally breaking loose. The first thing she did was pull the blade out. "You still wanna do this by your lonesome?" she asked.

Scorponok switched back to robot mode and said, "I could use some backup." His vital functions were still working, but the mechanisms in his tail were offline. Serina nodded before firing a hail of pulse blasts at the Decepticons and turning on her stealth system.

Blackout was on his feet again and was looking for the ghost mech. "Where did that thing go?" he asked. Serina popped up behind him, grabbing his head in a lock and twisting. It wouldn't kill the Cybertronian but it would be harder to aim when you can only look behind you. "Hey? What's going on?" yelled Blackout as he started firing his guns at random.

Serina kicked him over before firing a dart-like device into Lockdown's arm, which then exploded.

Cyclonus, meanwhile, was fighting with the pterodactyl. "This ought to take care of you, you prehistoric freak," he said as he started firing at the Dinobot. But the pterodactyl dived downwards before coming up beneath Cyclonus and bathed his underside with flames. Cyclonus glared, rolling to out the fire. "You'll pay for that," he said simply.

The pterodactyl transformed to robot mode and landed on top of Cyclonus. Then he used his mace to whack at one of Cyclonus' engines. "Gah...get off you vandal," said Cyclonus, rolling to try and shake him off. The Dinobot hung for a good while before letting go. Cyclonus was about to turn around and blast the primitive when his sensors picked up that he was about to crash into a tree. "Oh slag," he said before plowing into the trees. "...ow."

Meanwhile, Strika had turned his attentions to Grimlock. "You're not match for me, you prehistoric scrapheap," she said.

Grimlock transformed to robot mode and said, "Tank bot not tough. Me Grimlock can beat you easy."

Strika laughed. "You have no idea who you are dealing with," she said.

"Me Grimlock know you ugly," said Grimlock, drawing his sword. Strika glared and charged the Dinobot, confident of a quick finish. However, Grimlock blocked her fist with his forearm. Her next punch was deflected with his sword. "You ugly and slow," said Grimlock.

Strika glared before headbutting the Dinobot. Grimlock was knocked a few paces. "Ha, you call that headbutt? Me Grimlock has much thicker head than you." To prove it, Grimlock lowered his head and rammed her.

Strika was sent flying back to land at the feet of Serina and Scorponok. Serina said, "Boo."

Strika got back up and said, "I've had with you." She aimed the cannons on her back at Serina. Serina sighed and stealthed again. Strika looked around and yelled, "Come out and fight like a real robot! Oh wait, you're not a real robot, just a human's puppet."

"Wrong, I don't need a pilot anymore. Scorpy, can I tear her head off?" said Serina.

Scorponok growled and said, "No, I'd rather deal with her myself."

Serina stood back. "Fine, the bitch is all yours."

He pointed his left arm at Strika and opened it up. Then he fired a trio of missiles at point blank range. Strika was thrown backwards by the missile explosion. As she was getting back up, something small pinged off her head. She looked down to see Scalpel crumpled and welded into a ball.

"Don't...ask," he said in a muffled voice

Then Blackout reached up and put his head back in the right position. "Oh, now I'm mad," he said as he pointed his guns. However, this attracted the Dinobots' attention and they blasted him with their fire breath.

Serina watched with minor interest as Blackout was pummeled by the Dinobots before going over to where Cyclonus was getting up and putting her pulse blaster into the side of his head. "Here's a plan: knock off early," she said threateningly.

To Cyclonus' credit, he didn't show any fear at all towards Serina. However, he turned towards Strika and said, "Ma'am, may I recommend a strategic retreat?"

"Good boy, now piss off before I tear out your spark chamber," said Serina quietly

Strika hated to admit another defeat, but she, Cyclonus, and Blackout had been damaged greatly during their fights. And with their field medic in his current state, he wouldn't be much use in repairing them. "Decepticons, fall back!" she called, grabbing Scalpel and changing into a six-wheeled battle tank.

"Bye bye," said Serina, waving.

Cyclonus transformed and flew off while Blackout changed back into a helicopter and flew over to Strika. He strapped himself to the tank before taking off. "You have not see ze last of us!" called Strika as Blackout carried her away.

"Good, I wanna shoot you some more," retorted Serina rudely

Lockdown could see the situation was deteriorating. Scorponok and Dune Runner had been weakened, but Serina and the Dinobots looked like they still had plenty of fight left in them. "Erm, maybe we should try this another time," he said.

Serina shook her head. "I don;t think so, car boy," she said, firing her own version of riot foam at the bounty hunter.

Nightbird looked at Lockdown and said, "I could just leave you here..." She glanced at Serina and the Dinbots and said, "But I think I still need you." She reached into her pouch and pulled out a smokescreen orb before smashing on the ground and creating a large cloud of sensor-deadening smoke.

Serina glared and began shooting into the smoke. However once it had cleared it was clear the two merc bots were gone. Serina put away her weapons and said, "Next time, they won't be leaving in one piece."

Suddenly there was a sound like someone crumpling tin foil and dozens of spiderbots swarmed out the treeline, followed by the gang. Matt seemed to look better, his wound finally scabbing over. But he still looked a little weak and had to be supported by Chloe and Draco.

"Ow..." he said faintly. Scorponok however was looking a bit nervous around the spiderbots who were looking at him suspiciously. Like Scalpel, he knew their reputation.

Lilo looked around asked, "Hey, where did the bad guys go?"

Serina said, "We kicked their metal asses," cockily before looking at the others, "Erm...they helped."

Matt looked at the Dinobots and said, "The Dinobots fought the Decepticons?"

"Dey did a pretty good job too," said Dune Runner, "Scorponok's a pretty good trainer."

"Couldn't have done a better job myself," confirmed Serina.

Matt and Chloe gave Scorponok astonished looks. "You molded those brutes into an organized fighting force in one afternoon?" asked Chloe.

"Well, they still have some ways to go," said Scorponok modestly, "But once you're able to learn their personalities, they're not so difficult. Now training Jetfire and Jetstorm, that was patience-taxing."

"Who are those?" asked Matt, wincing as his head ached. "Should horns ache?" he asked.

"The Elite Guard's newest recruits and the first flying Autobots," said Scorponok, "Excluding Omega Supreme and my pupil, I believe those are more special cases."

"Your pupil?" said Chloe, curious.

Scorponok nodded his head towards the pterodactyl. "I can't quite seem to get his name. But he takes commands well enough."

Matt looked over. "Oh...the flying toaster," he said grinning aimlessly.

"Don't mind him. It's the poison talking," said Chloe quickly.

Scorponok looked at Matt and said, "Hmm, we ought to take him back to your, what do you humans call them? Doctors?"

Chloe looked at her brother who was gabbling away in draconic to a rock. "Ah, he's fine."

"Though you guys look like you could use repairs yourself," said Megan.

Chloe said, "And you look like you should be back getting taught stuff."

"But this is more interesting," said Gary.

"And good luck trying to find a teacher who could keep us under control," said Lilo.

Chloe was about to give the three of them a piece of her mind when they heard the sound of a hovercraft. They looked to see Sari landing, wearing her jetpack. "Hey guys, I was coming to see how the Dinobots..." She looked around and asked, "What happened here?"

"Absolute mayhem," said Chloe, simply

"Lockdown came back with a partner and tried to kidnap Matt. And then Team Charr came and attacked us. But Scorponok, Serina, and the Dinobots fended them off," said Chip.

"Aw, man," said Sari, "I wish I could have been here to see it, but the stupid Tutor Bot won't let me out."

"Tutor bot?" said Chloe and NegaMorph together. Sadly, all Matt could do was 'giggle at the pretty lights' before passing out. Apparently, Scalpel's temporary antidote was a hallucinogen.

"Yeah, my dad built him since I can't really go to school with other kids," said Sari, "It's stupid lessons wouldn't be so bad if Dad hadn't upgraded it to be able to withstand my Cybertronian powers."

Chloe looked thoughtful. "You don't say..." she said evilly.

"I think we might want to talk to your father about this interesting machine," said NegaMorph with an evil grin.

"I do not like the tone of their voices," said Gary.

"I am the mighty spoon," said Matt randomly.

"But first, someone call Contrinus," said Chloe in a tired voice.

--

Sometime later, Lilo, Megan, and Gary were in a specially designated room at the base, one that was set up like a classroom. They were sitting at desks while Matt, Chloe, and NegaMorph were standing by the chalkboard with (to their consternation) Jumba and Professor Sumdac.

"Erm...ok...I don't know why I'm here. I only know how to blow things up," said Matt confused. The others had taken advantage of his drunken status to get him to agree to help.

"Well, Matt, you know how we've been having so much trouble finding a way to school these kids?" asked Chloe, nodding her head to the three children sitting at the desks.

Matt turned. "Yes...why not just have the spiderbots watch em?" he said

"Well, it is not good enough for arachnid droids to be vatching," said Jumba, "Little girls and gargoyle boy have powers too much simple teaching persons, even evil geninus Jumba cannot manage them."

"Of course, that was before we heard about Prof. Sumdac's marvelous Tutor Bot," said NegaMorph.

Matt looked confused as Chloe said evilly, "He's almost as unkillable as the spiderbots. They tested him."

"Of course, it had to specifically designed," said Professor Sumdac, "I enhanced the exostructural durability to the same standards as Sari's upgraded Tutor Bot."

"And I upgraded processor for 476.5% more memory content, processing power, and personality recognition," said Jumba.

"Not to mention adding a bit more additional armor to withstand stronger attacks and magic-proofing it," said Chloe.

"You didn't let the spiderbots help, did you?" said Matt urgently.

"Only to see how effective it was," said NegaMorph.

"And now with further delay," said Isaac.

"Allowing us to be introducing... Tutor Bot Version 3.0," said Jumba, taking a tarp off a large object that was in the corner.

The unveiled robot looked, to Matt, more like a security droid than a teaching unit. It was at least 7 feet tall and heavily armored. It had four pairs of arms, which Matt could tell had weapons built into them. It had a viewing screen on its chest while its head relatively small and had a sweep-scan optic. It looked like a mix of technology from Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica, and RoboCop, with a graduation cap being relatively the only sign that it was built for tutoring.

"Has someone been going into my Z-Bay account?" he said suspiciously.

"Mostly through the spare parts," said Chloe before muttering quickly, "and your personal armory."

"What?" asked Matt.

"Let us be seeing how it works," said Jumba as he flipped a switch.

The robot's optic lit up as it turned to face Lilo, Megan, and Gary. "Greetings class," said the robot in a contrastingly friendly tone, "I am Tutor Bot 3.0 and I will be your mentor this semester."

"Can I test it?" said Matt, twitching before throwing a plasma ball at the tutor bot.

An energy shield immediately appeared and the plasma ball was neutralized. "Now, now, no fighting in class," said Tutor Bot 3.0. It picked up Matt and sat him on a stool before putting a dunce cap on Matt's head. "Maybe now you'll learn not to roughhouse so much," said Tutor Bot 3.0.

"Hmm, it appears personality chips require more modern tuning," said Jumba.

Matt's eyes blazed and the hat burst into flames. "Not amused," he said.

"We're going to be stuck with this thing all day?" asked Lilo.

"Not all day," said Chloe, "You'll have the afternoons and weekends off, provided you do your homework and studying. Of course, it'd let you go if someone excuses you or there's an emergency."

Megan muttered to Lilo, "I vote we make a project of working out what the emergency code is."

"This is cruel and unusual punishment," moaned Gary.

"Wrong," said NegaMorph, "THIS is cruel and unusual." He walked over to the door and opened it. The spiderbots were outside, wearing orange sashes. "Meet your new hall monitors/truant officers," said NegaMorph.

Gary actually climbed on the desk. "That's a breach of the Geneva Convention," he said.

"Mr. Lesog, please sit down or I'll have to call your mother," said Tutor Bot 3.0.

Gary gave the robot an incredulous look and said, "My mother died over 200 years ago."

"Don't take that tone with me, young man," said Tutor Bot 3.0.

Matt said, "Ok...how do you turn off the robot headteacher?"

"Hmm, it would appear that it requires some fine-tuning before it's ready to teach," said Prof. Sumdac, "I guess we'll have to hold off on the lesson plans until it's fully operational."

Matt wandered over and found a switch, flicking it to off. "There. All fixed," he said.

"Er, we still need to get it fixed so it can teach properly," said Chloe, "I guess class is canceled until we get it working properly."

The robot twitched before grabbing Matt by the neck, explaining 'DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!' and bashing him against the wall before powering down.

"Uh, how about you kids go out and play for a while?" asked Prof. Sumdac.

"Shouldn't be hard to repair," said Jumba as he started tightening some of the screws, "Just a small adjustment and..."

The robot sprang to life again and got Jumba in a headlock before giving him a noogie with another arm while saying, "Who's your daddy?"

Chloe watched. "Should we help?" she said distantly.

"I think we better," said NegaMorph, "We need his head in one piece."

Megan turned to the others and said, "All in favor of leaving before Brainiac gives us detention say 'aye'."

"AYE!" was the resounding cry, except for Matt who said "Ow…" from where he was laying on the floor.

They started sneaking out the door as Tutor Bot 3.0 said, "Who's your daddy?" Jumba managed to get his head down far enough to bite the robot's arm, which caused it to say "Ouch."

The spiderbots suddenly lunged out and pointed to a sign they had lasered into the wall that said 'All people without hall passes will be stunned...alot."

Matt groaned and said, "I almost miss Lockdown."

* * *

There's another chapter. And this one introduces new characters. I realize some fans would be annoyed with Scorponok being an Autobot instead of a Decepticon, but this Scorponok's based on Energon Scorponok and has a much different personality than the rest. Nightbird is based of the same character from G1, only with an alternate mode and transformation scheme like that of ROTF Mindwipe. Anyhow, the Dinobots appear and fight Team Charr, which I'm sure is something very exciting for fans. Of course, we threw in some craziness with the spiderbots and Tutor Bot 3.0, which I thought was pretty funny. And if you think there was excitement in this chapter, wait till the next one. It may take a while to get written, but it will be so worth it. Also, Scorponok and Nightbird are both on my deviantART gallery, check them out. Please review.


	8. Over, Sideways, and Under

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 8: Over, Sideways, and Under**

As Matt often said, 'Hardly a day goes by around here without something crazy happening'. Today was no exception as a giant praying mantis/scarab-like monster was making a mess of uptown Detroit.

"You know, I've been all over the place, but this is a damn first," said Matt, annoyed, ducking as a car flew overhead.

"Looks like one of Meltdown's attempts to make a transforming human," said Bumblebee while shooting electric blasts at the large insectoid.

"Really? He sounds like a swell guy," said Matt sarcastically, melting the tarmac at the mantis's feet with plasma control.

"Yeah, a real creep and total wacko," said Bumblebee, "You should have seen his other two experiments."

"Oh, lovely," said Matt, sending a concussion plasma blast into the mantis's face. The mantis just screeched loudly and sliced a nearby car in half before throwing it. "Oh no," said Matt before the car part hit his plasma shield, sending him flying.

Meanwhile, the other Autobots were up closer and had their servos filled. "This thing's a lot tougher than Lockdown's other experiments," said Optimus as he blocked one of the mantis's legs with his axe.

Chloe swept past it in dragon form, spitting a lightning bolt into its back. "I hate bugs," she snarled, before being flicked out the sky by a swipe.

Bulkhead tried to whack its face with his wrecking ball, but the creature spat out a sticky saliva all over him. As Bulkhead struggled to get free, he said, "And I thought that big cockroach the Professor accidentally made was bad."

"I hate roaches too," said Chloe, getting back up unsteadily.

Dune Runner tried blasting the creature, but his shots kept bouncing off the tough carapace. "Dis is not goin' well," said Dune Runner.

Matt sent a blast at the creature to the same effect. "Ok, we need a change of strategy."

Suddenly, Matt heard the sound of an engine revving. He looked behind him to see a rider on a purple motorcycle. The rider was dressed in black leather with a helmet that didn't reveal anything of his face. His bike was more interesting as it had a pair of wheels in the front set on extensions. Smoke was coming out of the twin exhaust pipes in the back above the third wheel.

"Damn," swore Matt before diving out the way as the motorbike rider went by. "Hey, get back, you idiot!" he yelled

The rider didn't listen to Matt as he drove straight towards the bug. He passed underneath of it and the exhaust pipes on his motorbike swiveled upwards and started blasting purple pellet of energy at the creature's underside. The creature yelled loudly with pain as it was hit.

Matt got up. "Oh, not another one," he groaned, getting a feeling that no normal motorbike has pulse cannons for exhaust pipes.

"Autobots, aim for its underside," called Optimus. Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Dune Runner all started blasting at the spot where the motorcycle's blast had hit. Matt and Chloe also sent blasts of their elements into the creature's underbelly to exemplarily effect. The creatures cried loudly with pain before falling over. It was still alive, but in no condition to do any more fighting.

Matt walked up carefully towards the creature. "Wow...who are you?" he said turning to the motorbike.

The rider chuckled before his form shimmered. The biking clothes and helmet disappeared to reveal a robot with a biker helmet-like head and one blue right eye and one red left eye. Then the biker jumped up into the air as the bike began to transform. The front wheel extensions extended further as the wheels moved to the sides and feet flipped out. The back part of the cycle unfolded into arms as the exhaust pipes swiveled towards the hands. The wheel in the back slid back to rest on the forming back. Then the rider's body split in half and the head of it withdrew as the arms formed into horns. The lower half went inside a compartment in the chest while the upper half plugged into the shoulders, forming the head. The head slid open a bit to show blue eyes as an Autobot symbol appeared on his chest. Then the robot spoke, "Back on Cybertron, they used to call me Sideways. I guess I'm a bit of a drifter. Maybe that's why I'm here."

Matt didn't look very convinced. "Why are you here? Properly please," he said.

Sideways shrugged and said, "Cybertron was getting to dull for me. Thought I could use a change of scenery. Earth sounded like a more exciting place."

Matt and Chloe glared. "Yeah right, pull the other one, it's got bells on."

Then Optimus stepped forward and said, "Let's not be so quick to judge. If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have known how to defeat that creature until it caused a lot of damage."

Matt looked at Sideways. "I think we should keep an eye on him. My bullshit sense is tingling," he said.

"Perhaps, but I think we ought to give the benefit of the doubt," said Optimus.

Sideways seemed to have a glint in his eye as he said, "It looks Optimus Prime is just generous as I've heard."

"Or gullible," muttered Matt to himself.

--

A little later, Sideways was being shown around the Autobots' base. "It may not seem like much," said Optimus, "But it's home."

Matt said, "Yeah...don't think you get to see my base." He and the mercs had not shown any trust at all. In their books, Sideways' appearance had been a bit...too convenient.

Sideways shrugged and said, "I think I've got more important things to do than to see your base anyways."

"Like what?" demanded Matt.

"Like keeping a lookout for Decepticons," said Sideways, "That was my job back on Cybertron, but with no Cons, it got real dull, real fast."

"Bullshit...the NSC have files of all of the Cybertron lookout units. You were not on them," said Matt accusingly.

"I have a tendency to be overlooked," said Sideways.

"Yeah, right..." said Matt before walking off.

"Don't take it personally," said Optimus, "Matt tends to distrust newcomers at first."

"Hey Sideways, wanna play some video games?" asked Bumblebee.

"Why would I wanna waste my time doing- uh, I mean, sure thing, Hot Shot," said Sideways.

"Uh, that's Bumblebee," said Bumblebee.

"Sure, whatever, so how do you play?" asked Sideways.

--

The mercs however had not gone far. "So...thoughts on drifter boy?" said Matt.

"Something about him does seem pretty odd," said Chris, "Why would a drifter come all the way to Earth?"

"Yeah, plus he is a bit...heavily armed for a lookout," said Chloe.

"I can't say sure why, but something about him reminds of something my father used to say," said Xavier.

"What's that?" asked Matt.

"Never trust anyone with more faces than they have heads."

"I vote we have the spiderbots follow him," said Matt.

"Good idea," said Chris, "We can't trust this guy until we know more about him."

"And if he doesn't play ball, the spiderbots strip him for parts," said Matt, coldly

--

"Ha! Beat ya again!" shouted Bumblebee. Sideways rolled his optics. This 'Ninja Gladiators' wasn't doing very much to entertain him. And Bumblebee's gloating was starting to wear on his nerves. "Hey, wanna play again?" asked Bumblebee.

"Actually, I think I'll stop now," said Sideways, "See you later, kid." He got and walked off. He muttered under his breath, "And I thought Hot Shot was annoying. At least he shut up now and then."

Sideways got up and wandered through the base till he ended up in Prowl's room. He spotted Prowl meditating on one of the tree's branches. "How can you stay in this room?" asked Sideways, "It's open to the elements. I wouldn't want to rust in my sleep."

Prowl said calmly, "I like it. It allows me to be closer to the nature of this world."

Sideways glanced at the tree and said, "Have it your way. It's probably saying nicer things about you than Bumblebee."

Prowl looked around. "I'm sorry?"

"Oh, you haven't found out yet?" said Sideways, "The yellow wonder kept talking about you when we were playing his game. He said, 'Prowl could never beat me at this. He spends so much time listening to flowers that he'd forget to recharge himself. He ought to have reformatted himself into a turtle, not a motorbike.' Apparently, he thinks you're the most sluggish bot on the planet."

Prowl glared. "Did he?" he said unimpressed.

"Sure did, heard it with my own audio receptors," said Sideways, "Guess Speedy has no time for slowpokes."

Prowl glared angrily and walked out, Sideways smirking as Prowl went out.

Bumblebee was walking by and said, "Hey Prowl, you wanna go ride around town for a while?"

"So you can nag about me being a slowpoke? I think not." said Prowl huffily as he stomped pass.

Bumblebee stared after him and scratched his head. "What's his problem?" he asked.

Sideways walked out of Prowl's room and asked, "What's going on?"

"Prowl just snubbed me for no reason," said Bumblebee.

"Oh, I think I may know what that reason is," said Sideways.

"Huh? What?" asked Bumblebee.

"Me and Prowl were having a little chat earlier," said Sideways, "He mentioned that you're not mature enough to be an Autobot warrior. Giving you battle-grade stingers is like giving a bazooka to a protoform. He doesn't believe you can handle any of the responsibilities."

"What? I can totally handle responsibilities!" snapped Bumblebee.

"You're gonna need to prove it," said Sideways.

"I sure am!" snapped Bumblebee before stomping off.

Sideways smirked and said, "This is so much fun."

--

Later, Matt was working on Serina's outer systems, repairing the damage Nightbird had done to the mech's boosters.

"So this Sideways guy just showed up out of nowhere and stopped the bug monster?" asked Serina.

"Yeah...I don't trust him." said Matt. Serina made a coughing moment. "aaand, he's right behind me, isn't he?" said Matt.

"'Fraid so."

Matt spun around to see the motortrike bot. "Sideways, I didn't hear you come in. Have you taken Circuit-Su lessons?"

"I dabbled. Anyway...so this is a ghost mech," said Sideways, walking towards the machine.

"That's right," said Serina, "What's it to you?"

"Do really have to ask? After all, you two are on a lot of blacklists, particularly with the Autobots," said Sideways.

"I know, most people have to work to get on most wanted, but I am talented," said Matt, happily.

"Yeah, but not that bright," said Sideways, "Why else would you hang out with a group of Autobots that are planning to turn you in?"

Matt smirked and Serina would have...even wider cause her lie detector had just shot off the scale. "Nice bullshit...wanna try and say flying pigs are after us next?" said Matt

"Huh? What are you talking about?" asked Sideways.

"Get lost, tin man," said Serina, readying a micro-missile.

Sideways glared at them before walking away. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he said.

"Shoot him," said Matt and they both laughed as Sideways yelped and ran for it.

Then turning serious, Matt said to Serina, "We'll need to watch our backs. He may be wearing an Autobrand, but I'm smelling a rat."

Serina said, "What's a rat smell like?"

--

Later that day, Optimus was walking out of the base to go on patrol when he heard a humming sound. He looked up to see what looked like a metal crate on top of a UFO floating down towards him. "A Cybertronian delivery droid?" said Optimus, "What's it doing here on Earth?"

The bot hovered down, spat a crate down and looked at him in the universal face of a courier demanding a tip.

"Um, let's see, I don't have any energon cubes on me at the moment," said Optimus, "Maybe a barrel of oil?" The bot shrugged and hovered off anyways.

Optimus looked down at the crate and noticed the Elite Guard brand on it. "Huh, I wonder what the Elite Guard sent us," said Optimus as he took the crate inside.

Matt was inside, playing a holo-game on his wrist comp and looking at Prowl and Bumblebee who were glaring at each other. "What the hell is you two's problems?" he said finally

"Master Stuck-Up thinks I'm more immature than a protoform," said Bumblebee.

"And this speedster considers me to slow to even eat his dust," said Prowl.

"Oh for heaven's sake, don't be babies," said Matt.

"Oh, so now you think I'm too young to be an Autobot too?" snapped Bumblebee.

"No, I think you're being a dumbass," said Matt, and spun to face the smirking Prowl. "The same for you too, ninja bot," he said

Bumblebee and Prowl both huffed and were about to walk off when Optimus came in with the crate. "Autobots, gather around. The Elite Guard has sent us something."

Matt turned. "Oh? Cool...I claim dibs on any plasma cannons"

Optimus opened the top of the box and pulled out two things. One was a digital message recorder. The other looked like some kind of jetpack with large glider wings on the back. It was a light blue-grey color and looked too large for a human to use.

"What the hell's this?" said Matt, poking the message recorder.

Optimus clicked on the recorder and an image of a red robot with yellow spectacles in front of his optics appeared. "Hey, that's Perceptor," said Ratchet, "He's in the upper levels of the Science Division."

"What's he saying?" said Matt.

Then the message started playing. "Optimus Prime, the Science Division has been working on something for the Elite Guard. These jet packs should allow us to match the Decepticons in aerial maneuvers. We sent this one so that your crew could be prepared in case of a Decepticon attack. Have a nice day." Perceptor's voice came out sounding rather monotonic.

"Hey...don't you guys actually have personality?" said Matt, poking the jet pack.

"Well, Perceptor's not exactly the liveliest of bots," said Ratchet, "He deleted most of his personality to make room for more intelligence."

"Oh...like Neilsson, he deleted his people skills to be a bigger asshole," said Matt, making Chloe snort into her drink with laughter.

Bulkhead picked up the jetpack and said, "Oh, can I try it?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Bumblebee, "You wouldn't be able to get an inch off the ground."

"What if it's a trick? It could explode and kill us all," said Matt.

Everyone looked at him. "Don't be paranoid," said Chloe

"Obviously, it should go to the lightest of us," said Bumblebee, "And I believe that would moi."

"Why should you get it?" said Prowl in an annoyed voice, "Aren't you satisfied enough with your own ridiculous speed?"

"Well, you already have a jetpack, Mr. I've-Got-Better-Sense-Cause-I'm-Older," said Bumblebee.

Matt sighed. "Don't make me turn dragon and bang your heads together," he said.

"Bah, Autobots aren't meant to fly anyways," grumbled Ratchet before walking off.

Matt sighed. "Hey...where's drifter bot?" he said.

--

Meanwhile, Team Charr was working on their ship. "Get a move on," said Strika, "I don't vant to be stuck on zis primitive planet forever."

"Itz eazy for you to be sayink, you are havink all your servos," said Scalpel. He had still not recovered from his close encounter of the spiderbot kind and had refused to tell what they had done.

"And you're about to lose the rest of yours if you don't keep working, pipsqveep," said Strika.

"I cannot beliftink anythink fatso!" snapped Scalpel.

"Give him a break, he's smaller than one of those humans," said a voice.

Strika turned around and demanded, "Who said that?" She then spotted a rider on a purple motortrike who was apparently chuckling at them. "Who are you? Tell me or die," said Strika, not in the mood.

"Relax, I'm with you guys," said the rider. Then he and the motortrike transformed, the motortrike becoming the body while the lower half of the rider formed into a light grey horned head. The Decepticon insignia flashed as the head came on. "You can call me Sideways," said the bot.

"Ve did not know zere vas another team here. Who is your commander?" said Strika.

"I'm my own commander," said Sideways, "I heard there were Autobots here to hunt and I came to join the party."

"Hmm...I do not like zis but any help is better zen none," said Strika.

Sideways began to say "Why than..." and jumped back in terror as Strika yelled, "YOU CAN BE STARTING WITH HELPING WITH REPAIR!!!"

"Uh, sure, no problem," said Sideways.

Strika picked him up, threw him into the ship, and yelled "ZEN GET ON VITH IT!!!"

As Sideways was getting back up, he saw what looked like a purple Starscream looking at him. "What are you looking at?" demanded Sideways. Skywarp screamed in terror and ran away. Sideways shrugged, "Weirdo," before going to help.

The first bot he came across was Oil Slick, was busy repairing the damages to the fuel tanks. Oil Slick turned to look. "Who are you and what do you want?" he said coldly.

"Sideways, and I'm here to help with repairs," said Sideways, picking up a wrench.

"Go away, I require no assistance," Oil Slick said.

"Strika thinks otherwise," said Sideways.

Oil Slick said, "What?" in tones so cold that icicles nearly formed.

"Apparently, she thinks you'll melt your hands before you can whip up anything useful," said Sideways, "I think your reputation as a chemist is going downhill."

Oil Slick's optics glowed. "Really? I'll show her," he said, throwing down his tools and heading for Strika's location.

"Hmm, that should be fun to watch, but I better do a little more work before I sit back," said Sideways.

He wandered off to where he saw Spittor who turned to look at him. "Who are you?" he said, suspiciously

"That's not important, you're Spittor, right?" asked Sideways.

"What of it?" asked Spittor.

"Just that Oil Slick says that you need to stop eating the profits and make something useful of yourself."

Spittor's eye twitched. "That chem maker? How dare he!" he said and transformed to hop towards Oil Slick before glaring at Sideways. "WHERE IS HE?"

"I think he's at the helm with the captain," said Sideways.

"I WILL DEVOUR THEM!" yelled Spittor, hopping in the direction of the bridge.

Sideways smirked and said, "And now just one more to set things off."

Blackout was last on his visiting list. "What you want?" said Blackout to Sideways.

"Nice to meet you. You don't seem like what the others said," said Sideways.

"What the others say?" asked Blackout.

"Oh, not much," said Sideways, "Except you're the group's pack mule. Must be because they think you're dumb and wishy-washy enough to do any task for them."

Blackout glared. "I WILL CRUSH THEM ALL!" he yelled, pushing Sideways out the way. Sideways just stared, he hadn't even had to try that time.

"This is almost too easy," said Sideways, "The Decepticons back where I came from took weeks to manipulate." The sound of laser fire could already be heard from the bridge. "Allspark, I love my job," said Sideways, walking out.

--

Matt was asleep in the Autobot base. It had been too late to head back to base so he had stayed the night. He was having a dream about Kala and him. They were apparently on a date together at a fancy restaurant. Then Kala started leaning towards Matt. Just when they were about to kiss, her head turned into that of a goose and she started honking loudly.

Matt woke up with a draconic swearword. "The hell?" he said. The sound of loud goose honking could still be heard. It sounded throughout all of the Autobots' base for a minute before stopping.

"What in the name of Nullspace?" he said angrily, turning human and walking towards where he thought the sound had come from. He walked outside and looked for a minute. But all he found was a red loudspeaker which was probably used to project the sound. "What the hell is that?" Matt muttered before turning dragon and stomping the loudspeaker till it was wafer thin. "No more noise," he said, eye twitching before going back to curl up and sleep.

What he didn't notice was the loudspeaker glowing blue while it uncrumpled itself. When it stopped glowing, it looked like it was never touched. But it clearly got the message and started hopping away.

The other Autobots were up when Matt got in. "Let me guess, the goose honking woke you guys up too?" asked Matt.

"That and Captain Fanzone called," said Optimus, "Apparently, there have been strange noises all over town."

"I found one of the causes, a giant loudspeaker, I squished it," said Matt.

"Well, I think there are more to find," said Optimus, "There have reports on the other side of town."

"Ok...what should we do to the guy who's making these devices?" said Matt.

"Well, er, what do would you do?" asked Optimus.

"I'd eat him," said Matt flatly.

"Pardon?" said Bulkhead.

"Sorry, that was the dragon talking," said Matt. Matt then added "Mostly..." with a cryptic grin.

"Well, if we wanna get any rest tonight, we better go out and find more of those loudspeakers," said Ratchet.

"Yeah...let's go stomp the git who spoiled my dream," said Matt, turning dragon.

"Sounds like a good opportunity to try out my new jetpack," said Bumblebee. Bumblebee headed back to his room where he had put the jetpack. He placed it upon his back and it clipped on using pincer-like clamps. Bumblebee twitched for a second before saying, "Let's head on out." He wasn't aware that the jetpack had started making an odd humming sound.

--

The group headed out across the city, Bumblebee taking to his jetpacks almost naturally. The speakers were quite easy to find, given they were wailing in any number of random noises. Matt was sure he heard an elephant in the cacophony. The odd part was that they were either red or blue. And often, they had a tendency to disappear as soon as someone turns their back.

Matt finally caught one out, trying to sneak away. Sadly he forgot how heavy his dragon form was when he jumped on it. "Oopsie," he said, picking up the half-squashed blue loudspeaker. "Well, it's not going to be making any more noise tonight," said Matt, dumping the speaker into a nearby dumpster.

However, as he was walking away, he distinctly heard it yell, "Fathead!"

Matt turned. "OH YEAH?" he said spinning on it. Bulkhead and Prowl arrived to see Matt yelling at said dumpster and yelling at a loudspeaker. "I know you can talk, you don't fool me," he was saying.

"What's with him?" asked Bulkhead.

"I think humans are like Cybertronians, lack of sleep dulls their senses and thinking," said Prowl.

Matt began bashing the loudspeaker on the wall and Bulkhead was sure he heard it say, "Ow."

"Uh, Matt, what do you think you're doing?" asked Bulkhead.

"It talks...it's alive I tell you...ALIVE!" said Matt.

Bulkhead turned to Prowl and said, "You're right. Not enough sleep makes humans go crazy."

Matt confirmed this by laughing insanely and jumping up and down on the loudspeaker before throwing it at Prowl. Prowl caught the loudspeaker before it could hit him. "Matt, it's just a broken loudspeaker. It can't insult you," he said.

"And I still look better than you!" snapped the loudspeaker.

The others stared at it. "Uh, did it just-" started Bulkhead but then the loudspeaker let out a high-pitched deafening sound.

This time Matt DID eat it, biting a chunk out of it and crunching it up. "Yummy...iron in the diet," he said with his mouth full.

"Dammit...you know how long that'll take?" said the speaker, jumping off and legging it round a corner.

"After the squeaker!" yelled Matt.

"What?" called Bulkhead.

"I said after the squeaker!" yelled Matt.

"Yes, there are sleepers here," called Prowl.

Matt grabbed Prowl and pulled him to face the retreating speaker, pointing. "SQUISH THE SQUISHY ONE!" he yelled before running after the speaker.

Matt saw it go into the shadows. "Alright, squawky, I'm send you back to your manufacturers," growled Matt, "Some assembly required." Suddenly, there was a growling sound and a pair of red eyes lit up in the darkness. Matt gulped. "Did I mention I command spiderbots?...WHERE ARE MY SPIDERBOTS?" said Matt, panicking a bit.

There was a yowl and what looked like a black panther jumped out of the shadows and landed on Matt before running away. "Oh for heaven's sake...not robo-kitties," said Matt as Prowl and Bulkhead turned up.

Fortunately, their audio receptors were working now. "Matt, what happened?" asked Prowl.

"Killer robot panther...talking loudspeakers...I wanna go to bed," said Matt, gloomily

"I wish we could," said Bulkhead, "but we gotta find out what's going on before we can, how do humans say it? Punch the straw?"

"It's hit the hay...ME WANT SLEEP!!!" gibbered Matt.

Suddenly, Prowl and Bulkhead got a message on their comlinks. "Autobots, we have another situation. Apparently there have been lightning strikes on several building tops," said Optimus' voice.

"Oh great...now it'll be evil aliens changing the weather," said Matt, gloomily before looking around, "Hey...where's Bumblebee?"

"Does it look like I care?" said Prowl.

Bulkhead looked up and said, "Say, isn't lightning only supposed to form in clouds?"

"Why do you say that? GHGFNDVDNBF!" said Matt as a blue bolt hit him right between the horns.

Prowl looked up to see no clouds in the sky. "That's strange," said Prowl, "Where did that bolt come from?"

"Maybe Bumblebee knows," said Bulkhead, turning on his comlink, "Hey little buddy, have you seen anything yet?"

"I see staaaars…" sung Matt, his eyes spinning.

"Hello? Little buddy?" Bulkhead tapped the side of his head. "That's weird, maybe I should have Ratchet look at my comlink."

"Maybe the storm's nulled your warranty?" gibbered Matt, hitting the side of his head to stop his eyes spinning.

"That's just it, there is no storm," said Prowl, "The sky is completely clear."

"Maybe it's invisible?" said Matt in a conspiratorial voice.

"I highly doubt that Earth weather can make itself invisible," said Prowl.

"That's only cause...we've never seen it do it," said Matt before breaking out in giggles.

Bulkhead sighed and said, "C'mon, the sooner we find out what's causing all the disturbances, the sooner we can get to bed."

"Yay...hide and seek...I'm it," said Matt, before falling over.

--

The next morning was not very happy. Matt and the Autobots had spent all night looking for whoever was causing the trouble, but found absolutely nothing. Matt was half sleep and half insane from his lightning strike. "Matthew need sleep...must...sleep…" he said before flopping down where he was standing and starting to snore.

Just then, Sideways ran in and said, "Guys! We've got a problem!"

Matt's eyes show open, now slightly red rimmed. "Waker must DIE!" he yelled and Chloe had to jump on him in dragon form to hold him down.

Sideways looked at Matt and said, "What's with him?"

Optimus yawned and said, "We've been up all night looking for the perpetrator for a number of disturbances."

"I wanna kill him...pleeeaaase!" cried Matt, now having to be held down by Bulkhead and Optimus as well. "No, bad brother, no killing," scolded Chloe.

"What's with all the slaggin' racket?" snapped Ratchet, "Can't a bot take a stasis nap around here?"

Matt turned. "MATTHEW WANT SLEEP!" he roared in Ratchet's face.

"Hate to break it to you, but there's no time for sleep now," said Sideways.

Matt stopped before grabbing Ratchet and crying on his shoulder, a small shower of tear-shaped diamonds falling down. Serina looked at the small shower of diamonds and said, "I didn't think organic tears could crystallize."

"Dragons' can, guess the Shar-Khan DNA still has surprises," said NegaMorph before looking shifty and grabbing a few. "Hmm..." he said, smirking

Then Lilo and Stitch came in. They had been spending the night sleeping over with the Autobots. "What are you guys doing?" asked Lilo.

Matt looked at them before wailing again. "Bet they could sleep," he said accusingly.

Stitch reached inside his ears and pulled out a large pair of cotton balls. "Gaba?" he asked.

Matt looked at Stitch before pushing Ratchet aside and lunging at Stitch, chasing him out the door, yelling something about wanting the cotton balls. Chloe sighed. "He'll be fine. What's the trouble, drifter bot?" she said

"It's Team Charr. They're heading for the city and they look like they're in a really bad mood," said Sideways.

Chloe said, "Those idiots again? Let's shoot em before they get here. We can call WARDEN!" She activated her comm, but only got static. "What the? I checked these last night. Stupid batteries," she muttered, hitting it, "Someone go catch Matt and let's go smash these fools."

Sideways smirked and said, "Yes, let's."

--

Lilo and Stitch rode with Matt and Chloe. "So, how did Sideways know that Team Charr was coming?" asked Lilo.

"Yeah, that is weird. I trust the little creep as far as I can throw him," said Matt, turning his head to look at them. There was this to be said; being able to become a dragon would be useful.

"I know," said Lilo, "Sideways is weird. And not weird as in 'cool', but weird as in 'wrong'. I mean, the head being the rider thing is kinda odd. And how did he even get to Earth in the first place?"

"Yeah, he rubs me up wrong. We should keep an eye on him," said Matt before looking ahead again.

Team Charr wasn't hard to find as they could be seen in the distant, kicking up a large dust cloud in their wake. The Autobots below had been seen by Team Charr and the two were rushing at each other. "Bumblebee, hit the middle row, scatter shots," Matt called over.

"Yeah, fine, whatever," said Bumblebee in a dull voice.

"Boy, does he sound hagridden," said Lilo.

"He sounds more like the guy in that message." said Matt, sounding concerned.

"What message?" asked Stitch.

"A message that came with Bumblebee's...jetpack…" said Matt, his voice trailing away in horror as he realized something.

Chloe thought for a minute and said, "By the way, Lilo, what do you mean by 'hagridden'?"

"It's just an expression for when someone's really tired," said Lilo, "Like a hag was forcing them to ride all night."

"Oh, ok. I saw no hag, just a talking loudspeaker," said Matt.

"A what?" asked Chloe.

"You heard me, plus a black jaguar. And I don't mean the car," said Matt

Matt flew closer to Bumblebee. "Hey, Bumblebee, maybe you should take that off?" he suggested.

"What? Why? This thing is great," said Bumblebee, "I never knew it was so exciting to fly before."

"Cause it's screwing up your brain," said Matt.

"Oh, you don't think I'm mature enough to handle it?" said Bumblebee, his voice turning dark.

"No, but I've seen, hell, I've BEEN corrupted by power...and you got a pack-full of it," said Matt, circling Bumblebee.

"Matt, it's a jetpack, not a space barnacle," said Bumblebee, "I can control it easy."

"That's what I thought about Draconus," said Matt, hovering in place.

Bumblebee stared for a few seconds and said, "I don't know who Draconus is, but this jetpack's nothing to worry about. It's an inanimate object."

"Dammit, Bumblebee, this is not the time. Let my team at least run tests," he said, before a fireball almost hit him. "...After this fight," he finished

"Team Charr, attack!" snapped Strika as she and her team transformed to robot mode.

Matt settled for sending a plasma burst into the ground in front of Blackout before landing on him with his talons pointed down. Blackout didn't give Matt any time to strike and blasted him off. Sadly for Blackout, Matt had already gotten a good grip, tearing a piece of armor off as he was sent flying.

Meanwhile, Spittor was gobbling and spitting out nearby objects with great rapidness, the slime that the expelled objects were covered in exploded as soon as they've made contact with something. Chloe and Prowl were dodging each piece shot at them. "That's just...nasty. Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to spit?" she yelled at Spittor.

"Anyone ever tell you to take a bath?" snapped Spittor.

"What?" asked Chloe before the tongues grabbed her and hauled her inside his mouth.

Chloe's eyes blazed and as Spittor opened his mouth, a burst of thunder as thick as a tree trunk, blazed down the Decepticon's throat. Spittor let out a large cry of pain as the slime was also detonated by the blast, throwing him backwards while expelling Chloe out. Chloe landed in a heap. "Ow...that...hurt," she said.

Then Bulkhead tried to swing his wrecking ball at Skywarp, but it missed badly. The ball however smashed a wall which fell on the clone anyway. Skywarp gave a cry of fear and teleported away from the battle.

"Bulkhead, aim for-" started Optimus before being slammed by Strika.

"It's your fault ve're stuck on this stupid planet!" snapped Strika, "You had to go and interfere with Megatron's plans!" She then started punched Optimus many times.

A tank shell hit her hard enough to knock her down. Apparently WARDEN had succeeded in calling for reinforcements and several marines complete with heavy gear were arriving, including a mobile EMP tank. However, Oil Slick came prepared and threw several canisters at the reinforcements. The EMP tank ground to a halt as its wheels rusted up...but it managed to return the favor at Oil Slick before its crew had to abandon the rusting tank.

Oil Slick wasn't done there. "I always wanted to see how this would affect organics," he said before tossing a canister towards them. NegaMorph saw it coming and flew over there to keep troopers out of the way before the canister hit the ground and shattered.

The acid sprayed everywhere, forcing the marines to scatter, more of it falling on NegaMorph and causing a cloud of white smoke as it began to eat away. NegaMorph screamed loudly as his back was being dissolved. In desperation, he worked his way towards a water pipe in the ground and ripped it open, allowing the gush of water to wash off the acid.

Several marines ran up past him, holding a shoulder-mounted EMP cannon before firing on Oil Slick who was already starting to feel the effects from the EMP tanks shot earlier. Oil Slick staggered again as he started to feel disorientated.

"Hey, leave the organics out of this!" snapped Ratchet. He fired his magnetic blasts at Oil Slick, but they fell short.

"What's the matter? The old shell's finally starting to break down?" taunted Oil Slick.

"I'm still fit," snapped Ratchet, "I just didn't get much sleep last night."

A second EMP tank rumbled into view as Oil Slick readied a rust bomb, this time a full-powered blast hitting him in the back. Oil Slick staggered before falling over. He wasn't unconscious yet, but his body was paralyzed for the moment.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee had risen higher above the battle. He was preparing to divebomb them when Cyclonus appeared in front of him. "Going somewhere?" he said, raising his swords. Bumblebee sent a blast of energy bolts at the Decepticon. Cyclonus dodged them with ease. "You'll have to do better than that to defeat a Decepticon," said Cyclonus.

Bumblebee sent several blasts into Cyclonus's engine, causing sparks to shoot out. Cyclonus didn't panic, but merely lowered his altitude. "Not bad," he said, "But can you fight hand-to-hand?" Bumblebee sent another blast into Cyclonus's face, before shooting forward and landing on his shoulders and shooting down into Cyclonus's back repeatedly.

Cyclonus grimaced before grabbing Bumblebee's legs. "Let me show you how a real Decepticon fights." He flew down towards the ground and seconds before impact, he threw Bumblebee forwards and slammed him into the ground.

Bumblebee immediately jumped up, his eyes looking wrong before shooting back up, several blasts hitting vital points. Cyclonus winced before saying, "I bet you're not as tough without that jetpack." He swung one of his swords and the jetpack fell off. What neither of them realized was that instead of being severed, the jetpack unclipped from Bumblebee's back right before Cyclonus' sword sliced past. Cyclonus immediately grabbed Bumblebee that was surprised to suddenly find him out cold.

"Hmph, weakling," said Cyclonus before kicking Bumblebee away. He didn't notice the jetpack fly back and re-attach itself.

Prowl was running over to help Optimus when Blackout stepped in front of him. "I don't care what that three-wheeler says, I am nobody's pack mule!" yelled the helicopter before throwing his fist at Prowl. Prowl barely made it out of the way and Blackout's punch caused a large depression in the ground.

Prowl landed lightly on a lamp post. "Three-wheeler?" he said curiously.

"Yeah, that dumb purple bot told me the others thought I was stupid and gullible," said Blackout.

"Did he? And what was this bot's name?" said Prowl, dodging another blow.

Blackout paused for a moment and said, "He didn't say. He just came and told what the others thought of me."

"He wouldn't happened to have exhaust pipes on his wrists and a dark grey horned helmet, would he?" asked Prowl.

Blackout nodded. "That's the bot......you know him?" he said, stopping out of curiosity

"I believe so," said Prowl, "He came here saying he was an Autobot."

"That's not true," said Blackout, "He was a Decepticon, I think. Come to think of it, I think his helmet was actually more silver."

"I'm starting to think we may be dealing with the same bot. You know what that means?" asked Prowl. Matt, who was nearby, was about to open his mouth when Prowl said, "No, let him figure it out."

Blackout managed "That he's...a creep?" he managed.

Matt shrugged. "Close enough."

"Yes, I think he's been fooling us all," said Prowl, "We need to tell our teams." He turned and shouted, "Listen, everyone! I think we've been tricked!" However, the others were too busy fighting to pay attention.

Blackout yelled, "EVERYBODY...SHUT UUUUP!" causing an EMP stomp.

Matt watched the reaction. "Good...you got it partially right, however THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO HEAR US AFTER THEY STOP!" he yelled.

"Oh...sorry," said Blackout before stomping again.

The teams did stop. Strika yelled, "Blackout, vat is your software bug?"

"Listen, everyone, I think we've all been tricked," shouted Prowl, "Does anyone know a bot named Sideways?"

"Zat little veasel?" said Strika, angrily.

Optimus said, "What about him?"

"He's been playing us like a violin, playing us against each other," added Matt

"Hasn't anyone noticed that he's not fighting on either side?" said Prowl.

"Well, he did go ahead to scout out where the Decepticons were," said Optimus.

"Vhat are you talking about?" demanded Strika, "He vas leading us to vhere ze Autobots are."

"I say we eat him," said Matt, his dragon instincts kicking in again.

"Yeah, chew him up and spit him out," said Spittor.

"I think we should find out where he is first," said Lilo.

"No problem," said Stitch, "Sideways started fight, Sideways must be watching fight."

Matt looked around before looking at a building. "Seems the best place," he said and blew the supports apart.

"What are you doing, you glitchhead?" began Ratchet.

"Wait for it..." said Matt.

Just as the building was collapsing, Sideways ran out, wearing a silver helmet and the Decepticon insignia. "Stupid humans, what type of shoddy construction are they using for..." he was grumbling before noticing the other Transformers. "Uh, hey guys," he said nervously.

Matt glared as only a dragon could glare as Chloe limped over, looking even angrier. "Let's strip him for parts." she said angrily

"Hey, no need to be hasty, I'm actually a double agent." He opened his chest compartment and pulled out his dark grey helmet. His silver helmet popped off and the dark grey was put on, causing his insignia to switch from Decepticon to Autobot. "See?"

"But for which side are you really on?" demanded Optimus.

"Ok, real head...or I look for myself by pulling them off one by one," snarled Matt.

"Um, well, you see...ah, forget it," said Sideways before jumping over Matt and Chloe and grabbing Lilo and Stitch in one hand and aiming the blasters on his other arm at their heads. Before they could break free, a stun gas was sprayed out of Sideways' thumb and made them go limp. "One move and their grey matter's all over your windshields," said Sideways.

Matt sighed. "Some people are fools. You think I'd let the kids go outside school without chaperones?" he said.

Sideways pressed the barrels of his blaster to Lilo and Stitch's faces. "They put one scratch on me, your buddies' heads are vapor. I am not bluffing," he said.

"Erm...too late," said Matt. Sideways looked down to see the ammo feeder cables had been cut off and a spiderbot flipping him the bird before scuttling into a join in his armor.

Sideways winced slightly and said, "Well, it's a good thing I brought backup, right Bumblebee?" Suddenly, electric blasts started hitting the spiderbots. The others turned to see Bumblebee staggering towards Sideways, his left eye glowing red.

"Uh oh, I said it was evil," said Matt. They were briefly re-distracted when Sideways' arm fell off at the elbow.

Sideways laughed and said, "You think I'm worried about that?"

"Uh, your arm's unattached, how does that not-" started Matt before a swarm of shimmering grey cloud came out of Sideways' elbow and picked up the arm before reattaching it.

"Surprised? My body contains millions of healing nanites. Hurt me all you want, they'll just keep repairing me," said Sideways.

However, the spiderbots decided that if they couldn't harm Sideways, they'd settle for the next best thing: irritating him. They scuttled up and started crawling all over his face, particularly his optics. "Hey! Get off of me, you eight-legged freaks!" yelled Sideways as he tried to swipe them off.

He realized what they were doing when he heard what sounded like power drills and his head fell off. "Keep away!" squeaked one of the spiderbots and they ran off with his head.

"Oh, come on! Was that even fair?" was his retreating comment as the spiderbots carried his head round the corner.

"Autobots, get that jetpack off of Bumblebee!" said Optimus. The jetpack didn't like that as it had Bumblebee blast at the Autobots. Matt and Chloe lunged at Bumblebee who flew upwards, making them hit each other.

From that perspective, Bumblebee then started shooting electric blasts down one everyone. "Decepticons, shoot him down!" shouted Strika before firing at Bumblebee.

"No, bad robots, it's that bloody jetpack, I'm certain," said Matt, shaking the stars from his vision.

"Your point being?" said Strika.

"Kill the jetpack and we have no more problem, you...toaster oven," said Matt, angrily

"Eh, ve'll blast ze jetpack...if he's lucky," said Stirka before firing again.

"Bad robot, don't make me get the spiderbots," threatened Matt before Strika grabbed him and threw him aside without taking her eyes off the target

However, they were so concentrated on Bumblebee, they didn't noticed Sideways reached into his chest compartment and pulling out his other head. He placed it on his shoulder and said, "Now that that's taken care of, I'm outta here." He started running away, using the wheels on his ankles as skates.

Matt turned. "Where do you think you're going, tin can?" he said, getting up and running after him

"I think I'll be taking my hostages to a much more secure location," said Sideways as he started to pick up speed before transforming to vehicle mode. Lilo and Stitch probably could have escaped if the saddle didn't extend straps to tie them down.

Matt spread his wings with an angry roar and took off after the retreating bot. The Autobots also noticed this and Optimus called, "Autobots, after that triple-wheeler!"

At the same time, Strika ordered, "Decepticons, don't let zat trickster escape!"

Bumblebee floated down in front of them and fired a hail of stinger blasts at them. But then the jetpack apparently got a command and started flying after Sideways, but he was not attacking him.

Matt was now catching up on Sideways, almost grabbing the bot once when he grabbed the axel at the back and lifted the back wheels up till a plasma blast shocked him.

Matt wasn't hurt, but it caused him to drop Sideways. "You're gonna have to do better than that," growled Matt.

"That's why I arranged for backup," said Sideways. Just then, a dark blue Scion xb drove besides them.

Matt landed angrily in front of the car. "I'll rip him apart. Let you see what will happen if Lilo and Stitch are hurt when I find you," he said.

"Negative, you are the one who are about to feel pain," said a monotonic voice from the minivan before several speakers extended from the sides and started playing a very high-pitched sound.

Matt yelled angrily before breathing a blast of flame at the bot, before falling unconscious. As Matt's body tumbled off, Sideways said, "Nice work, Soundwave. Keep up that pitch, there'll be more organics chasing us."

Chloe flew round the corner in dragon form and saw Matt before roaring angrily and sending a blast of lightning at Soundwave. Soundwave directed his speakers upwards so that Chloe got the full force of the stun pitch. However, this meant Chloe nearly flattened him, pinning him.

Soundwave was forced to transform briefly to robot mode to get Chloe off of him. However, the Autobots had drove onto the scene. "It's Soundwave!" said Bulkhead, "He must be working with Sideways!"

Soundwave turned towards the Autobots and intoned, "You shall not best me this time." A wave of sonic force came out of the speakers in his shoulder and blasted the Autobots off their wheels. Then Soundwave changed back to vehicle mode and rode after Sideways.

Matt managed to get his voice back. "Get...the stupid...banger…" he managed.

Just then, Draco, Contrinus, Megan, Gary, and Weirdwolf flew over the streets. Draco was carrying Chip, Contrinus was carrying Morph, and Megan was carrying NegaMorph. "I see them," called Gary, "We'll drop down and surround them."

Matt made a "Nngh…" but his tongue was still stunned. A second burst made the others join them on the ground. Matt's stare said 'Idiots'.

However, NegaMorph was more on his guard and noticed Soundwave's speakers. He covered his ears in time to prevent himself from being paralyzed. However, his back was still too weak to allow him to grow wings. "Looks like I'll need a different ride," he said. He looked around and spotted an abandoned motorcycle in an alley that was apparently waiting for the recycling truck to take it away.

NegaMorph was about to hotwire it when he saw the keyhole and pulled out his Lockblade. "Might as well," he said and clicked it in and twisted it. Immediately, the motorcycle appeared to burst into shadowy flames. Then the metal frame started to twist itself into a new mold. NegaMorph watched the transformation/upgrade and said, "Cool."

Just then, Strika and Oil Slick came tearing up the road. Cyclonus and Blackout were following from above. Spittor was hopping across the rooftops. The Decepticons started taking pot shots at the retreating Cybertronians, casing utter panic as the bots fled into a crowded main road.

"Strika, you can't fire there!" called Optimus, "There are innocent humans driving there as well."

"Zen zey should get out of my vay," said Strika as she bumped a Hummer out its lane.

Soundwave detected the approaching Decepticons and opened up his trunk. "Laserbeak, Ratbat, deploy," he said, "Operation: Distraction." An electric guitar and a keytar flew out of the trunk before transforming into a robotic condor and bat respectively and flying at Blackout and Cyclonus.

"What the slag?" managed Blackout before being forced to try and wave Laserbeak away.

As Strika and Oil Slick got closer, Soundwave opened his trunk again and commanded, "Rumble, Frenzy, deploy." A pair of loudspeakers, red and blue, flew out of the trunk. As they came out, the bottom parts separated and unfolded to become legs while their upper parts widened and unfolded to form arms and chest before a head popped out. The two small bots jumped onto Strika and Oil Slick. The two Decepticons transformed into robot mode as soon as the small bots had landed.

"Vat the?" said Strika, punching one of them before being knocked over by a sound blast from the other.

"Boy, this one sure is ugly, right Frenzy?" said the red one.

"You said it, Rumble. But this one's not a French model either," said the blue one as he blasted Oil Slick with a sonic wave.

The Autobots came into view to see the Decepticons being beaten badly. Quite soon afterwards, Strika gave a cry of disgust and said, "Zis isn't vorth it. Team Charr, fall back. Ze Autobots will get rid of zis trickster for us." She and Oil Slick drove while Blackout and Cyclonus flew away.

"Where did those little bots come from?" asked Ratchet.

"Apparently Soundwave built himself some new minions," said Prowl.

The bots turned to look at them. "Hey...that's the buddy of the organic who tried to eat me," said Frenzy.

"Let's shake 'em loose," said his partner. The two of them began generating large bursts of sound directed at the Autobots. The Autobots were sent flying backwards before the minions, seeing their masters had escaped turned and followed.

However, Spittor didn't receive Strika's order and was still pursuing. He was quickly ganging on Sideways and Soundwave. "I'm gonna chew them up and spit them out," said Spittor as he readied to extend his tongue to grab the motortrike and its passengers.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of another motorbike revving. He paused and turned around to see a pure black motorcycle suddenly soar up the side of the building he was on. It was a somewhat odd-looking bike, have a bazooka-like armrest on the right side and what looked a third wheel close on the left side. Most peculiar of all was the figure riding the bike. "Sorry, froggy," said NegaMorph, "I'd love to see the two-face get eaten, but his captives are friends of mine." Before Spittor could react, NegaMorph landed the bike right on top of him.

The Decepticon moaned with pain and said, "Hey, watch it! I've got a sore jaw!"

"Don't worry, I hear flying's good for that," said NegaMorph before jumping off his bike. He grabbed Spittor's leg and started spinning around. When he had good enough momentum, he let go and sent the Cybertronian walker hurling out of the city. Then NegaMorph walked over and pulled the key out of the bike. The bike faded into darkness while the key grew in size until he got it became his Lockblade again. "This thing keeps getting cooler," said NegaMorph.

However, Matt had recovered and was rejoining the chase, only this time taking the prudence of plugging his ears. "Let's get em!" yelled Matt, before a hail of stinger blasts exploded around him. "Bumblebee...don't make me come up there," he said

The possessed Autobot flew down towards Matt, still firing his stingers. Matt jumped back. "You're not Bumblebee, he can aim. Who are you?" he said.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" said 'Bumblebee' in a distant voice.

"As a matter of fact, we do," said a voice. Bumblebee turned to see Dune Runner flying towards him on his hoverboard while blasting at him with his hand blasters.

Matt turned back to human before jumping up to grab onto Dune Runner. "Get me on his back," Matt said.

"You got it," said Dune Runner as he moved his hoverboard so they were behind Bumblebee. Then Dune reached under with his lower arms and pinned Bumblebee's arms to his side. "You've been stingin' enough for one day," said Dune Runner.

Matt jumped up and landed with his ion blade out, slicing through connectors on the jet pack. "Let's see what happens when I cut this off," he said, sticking his blade into the jet pack.

Suddenly, the jetpack detached from Bumblebee and barreled into Matt. As it flew, the connecters slid back as a pair of arms popped out of the sides. The thrusters on the legs extended and a pair of feet flipped out. The backside of the jetpack detached to form a tail as the wings extended and bent. Then a head that had a red left eye, a blue right eye, and a crown-like frame popped out of the top. The resulting robot looked more like a gargoyle than humanoid.

"Hiya, body snatcher, I'm your worst nightmare," said Matt, aiming a decapitating blow.

The robot caught his arm before he struck. "And I am Strapwing, your physical superior," said the robot before metal tentacles extended from his arms and wrapped around Matt before electrocuting him.

To the bot's surprise Matt wasn't bothered. "Call that an electric shock? HAH!" said Matt before transferring to hybrid form and biting the tentacles.

Strapwing winced and said, "You have strong skin, but how strong is your stomach?" He transformed back to jetpack mode with Matt still ensnared in his coils. Strapwing then started flying extremely fast while doing very tight twists and turns. There were several instances when Matt thought he was about to make contact with a side of a building or something, but he kept pulling away at the last minute. Being a natural flyer both with his own wings and a craft's wings made Matt at ease with flying, but there was only so much one can endure before becoming completely disorientated and then nauseous.

"Ooooh...funky," he said as Strapwing let him go. Matt landed with a crash on one rooftop. He got back and nearly fell down. "I'll get you for that, as soon as the city stops spinning, ooooohh..." he moaned.

Strapwing looked at the staggering humanoid. "Hah...nobody outflies Strapwing," he said grinning before Dune Runner jumped up and grabbed him. "Hey! Let me go!" snapped Strapwing.

"Just a minute," said Dune Runner as he opened the panels on Strapwing's engines and crossed some wires. Then he closed the panels and released Strapwing. "All done," he said.

Strapwing said "What did you...YARRRGH!!" he yelled as his engines went nuts, sending him into several tail spins and into the lake.

"Hmm, he better be a better swimmer than a flyer," said Dune Runner before returning his attention back to the motortrike with his two close friends on it.

Matt grabbed on as well and rode along. "Tally ho and all that smeg," he said, laughing insanely. Then Matt paused and asked, "Where's Bumblebee?"

Dune Runner said, "I put him down on a roof. I t'ink dat he's been unconscious for a while, Strapwing was runnin' his body."

Matt nodded and said, "Then let's get that hijacker's buddies." Dune Runner flew down to the road before converting back into his dune buggy mode, with Matt in the driver's seat. "Let's listen to some chase music," said Matt as he reached for the radio.

The steering wheel extended forwards and bopped Matt. "It's my radio, I pick da music," said Dune Runner.

"Fine," said Matt annoyed.

Dune Runner turned on some snappy chase music as the panels on his rail flipped to reveal small blasters which started firing at Sideways and Soundwave's wheels.

Sideways turned. "Soundwave, send out your last pet," he said as a blast nearly blew his wheel off.

Then Soundwave sent out a signal as he said, "Ravage, attack." Just then, Matt heard a loud engine sound and turned to see a black quad bike coming up behind them. Most notable about it was that there was no rider on it.

"Dune, 6'o'clock," he said, turning and throwing a plasma orb at the quad bike.

The quad popped a wheelie before jumping up into the air. As it leapt, legs unfolded from underneath as the wheels moved to the sides. Its saddle and backside flipped back and folded to form a tail while its handlebars pivoted back to become blasters. Then its head popped out and it landed on Dune Runner's back as a robotic panther, growling at Matt.

"Oh nuts, it's you, bugger off," said Matt and tossed a plasma ball in its face. The metal cat snarled and slashed at Matt with its claws. Matt managed to lean back to avoid losing his head and threw another plasma ball into the panther's face.

The jaguar yowled and was prepared to go for Matt's throat when one of Dune Runner's back seats morphed into an arm. "Sorry, kitty, I'm more of a dog person," said Dune Runner before throwing the yowling panther off.

Matt waved to it. "Take care, bye-bye now," he called.

"Ok, we're comin' up on them now," said Dune Runner, "You t'ink you can take da rollin' boombox?"

"Pardon?" said Matt, his earplugs still in.

"Good ta hear," said Dune Runner before he changed into his robot mode. Due to him have his wheels positioned inside his feet, he could skate too. He tossed Matt over to Soundwave and called, "Watch out for dem speaker dudes!"

"WHAT?? Ow," said Matt, as he literally hit Soundwave.

Soundwave felt Matt landing on him, but he didn't have the time to deal with him. "Rumble, Frenzy, remove the organic," commanded the Scion.

The two speaker bots climbed up on top of Soundwave's roof. Rumble took one look at him and said, "What if he jumps on me again?" before Frenzy pushed him forward. Matt looked at them and turned dragon. "I told you," said Rumble before Matt jumped on them.

"Well, he ain't biting me again," said Frenzy before he started blasting Matt with sonic waves.

Matt didn't seem bothered and Frenzy realized too late that Matt had ear plugs. "Oh no," said Frenzy, in a bored tone before Matt hit him into the ground

Matt tossed Rumble off as well and turned to the minivan he was standing on. "It's you and me now, DJ," said Matt.

Soundwave transformed and said in his usual tone, "You are inferior to me."

Matt just said "What?"

Soundwave didn't react to Matt's self-induced deafness and said, "Prepare to feel the wrath of Soundwave." Soundwave then started hitting Matt with sonic pulses.

Matt was knocked back but was spared the worst due to no hearing, instead just having to endure the physical impacts. "How about you shut up?" said Matt before throwing a plasma orb at each speaker.

The sound cut off immediately and Matt leapt at Soundwave, digging his claws in as far as they went before pushing them down the metal with a dreadful tearing noise. Soundwave let out a dull cry of pain before grabbing Matt and throwing him off. Matt rolled back onto his feet and went back to the attack, tackling Soundwave and biting down on the robot's shoulder.

"This body has been heavily damaged," said Soundwave, "Retreat, necessary." He threw Matt off again before transforming back into vehicle mode. He opened his trunk and Laserbeak, Ratbat, Rumble, and Frenzy quickly came and climbed into it before Soundwave drove off. Matt spat one last plasma ball after them before following Dune Runner to where Sideways was.

Sideways had also seen Dune Runner coming and had switched back to robot mode, a hostage in each hand. He continued to skate forward on his wheeled ankles. "Keep out of this, buggy boy," said Sideways, "Unless you want these little meat puppets to go squish."

Dune Runner stopped but glared. "That's right, I'm in charge here so you are going to let me go and...what's that noise? ARRRGH!" said Sideways as a spiderbot, that had been hiding in his head storage area jumped onto his face and began hitting him with a small mallet that folded out of its device compartment. Naturally, Sideways dropped his hostages from sheer shock and began to try and pull it off.

Dune Runner quickly dove forwards and grabbed Lilo and Stitch with his lower arms. "You two alright?" he asked.

"A little tired, but fine," said Lilo.

"Good," said Dune Runner before turning to Sideways, "Dere are two meanings to aloha: hello... and goodbye!" The spiderbot saw Dune Runner's fist coming and jumped off. Sideways, however, was sent flying off the road.

The spiderbot landed on Dune's head like a very evil hat and waved, squeaking, "Bye-bye, loser!"

Sideways got up and glared up at Dune Runner. "I won't forget this!" he called before transforming and driving off.

"He will..." said the spiderbot evilly. What people forgot about spiderbots was that they could use anything to multiply…and there had been so much junk in Sideways' head storage and the spiderbot had been wanting to pass the time...

"Which reminds me," said Matt, "We better get the head the spiderbots stole so we can get some info out of it."

--

The head had sadly not survived very well, when the spiderbots had played a game to see how many times it could be run over by high speed traffic. The gang had 'confiscated' the head and now Matt and the Autobots were interrogating it back at the Autobots' base.

"You...won't keep...me here...for long," said Sideways' head after healing for the umpteenth time, "Someone'll be here to pick me up and they'll be sure to leave an ashen crater behind."

Matt glared at it. "You know...would you like to be handed to the spiderbots again?" he said.

Sideways' tone suddenly became a lot more complacent. "Now, now, let's not do anything hasty," said Sideways.

"Who sent you?" said Matt darkly, lifting up a hand with a spiderbot sitting in it to help...convince the head.

"Can't say, it's a surprise," said Sideways.

Matt dropped the spiderbot that started to scuttle forward.

Suddenly, the ceiling above them exploded. "Ah, here's your surprise for today," said Sideways. Matt looked up to see a red and black robotic hand reach down and grab the head.

Matt looked up to see Karnak and barely raised a plasma shield around him and his friends before Karnak fired several missiles in.

"I'd love to finish you organics off right now, but I'm on a tight schedule," said Karnak before taking off.

Matt saw the spiderbot on Karnak's back, waving farewell to Matt. Matt didn't like evil but even he agreed some things were too cruel. "Erm...Karnak?" he said.

"What do you want, you waste of matter?" demanded Karnak.

Matt frowned then said, "Nevermind."

Prowl said, "Why did you not tell him about the spiderbot?"

Matt turned to grin so evilly Prowl took a step backwards. "He'll find out," said Matt, evilly.

"Uh, Prowl, I think I should apologize for the way I was behaving," said Bumblebee.

"So should I," said Prowl, "But it was Sideways' fault, so I guess it doesn't matter."

"We should have squashed the head," said Matt with a faint grin.

"I think the spiderbots proved that the head is rather 'unsquashable'," said Optimus.

"No, they just needed a bit more time," said Matt.

"Well, they're gonna get more time now," said Bumblebee, "I bet Karnak's taking that head to their hideout."

"Yup...but I wonder, I would have liked to have known who was in charge before the spiderbots got him," said Matt.

--

Sometime later, Sideways was standing in a secret cave. "I'm afraid the mission was a failure," said Sideways, "Both sides caught on to me."

The figure Sideways was talking to said, "Doesn't matter. You learnt a lot, more than enough."

"I would have thought we'd be able to defeat them," said Sideways, "What with us releasing that insect mutant, Soundwave creating the fake message from Perceptor, his pets keeping the Autobots up and ragged, and Strapwing controlling that yellow pain in the butt. How could we have lost?"

"Simple, the organics interfered, as usual," said the figure, stepping forwards to reveal himself as Mantichrome, "But fear not Sideways. Soon, the Distracticons will rise to power and destroy those meddlesome… What's that scratching noise?"

The two of them looked to see several dozen spiderbots looking at them. "Slag," said Mantichrome, "I'm going to have to dispose of them immediately." Mantichrome sadly remembered just as the spiderbots jumped what had happened the last time he had tried. "Oh, double slag," he managed before the spiderbots landed on them.

* * *

There's a new chapter at last. And with it, the introduction of a new group: the Distracticons. I think you might recognize its members. Sideways is of course a homage to his Armada counterpart. Rumble, Frenzy, and Ravage are from G1. Strapwing is a new bot, based off of Coldsteel from Gargoyles. You'll definitely be seeing more of the Distracticons later. Incidentally, the praying mantis monster at the beginning of this chapter is based off of Bugsy, a Pretender from G1. NegaMorph's new bike is going to make more apperances soon as well. The next chapter is in progress so keep an eye out for it. Please review.


	9. Iron Safari

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 9: Iron Safari**

About a week after the debacle with Sideways, Matt decided to take a little walk along the wharf. He'd been feeling a little moody lately and need to get his thoughts straight. He looked at a holo pic from the red kryptonite incident. He and Kala were standing in front of the Statue of Liberty during one of the peaceful days. Matt sighed to himself. What was Kai making poor Kala do?

His ponderings were put on hold when Weirdwolf trotted up to him. He had what looked like a metal stick clutched in his mouth. He sat down in front of Matt and placed the metal stick at Matt's feet before panting expectedly.

Matt picked up the stick. "What the smeg?" he said, before looking at Weirdwolf, amused. "Where'd you get this, boy?" he said. Weirdwolf barked and crouched down, his dragon's tail wagging.

Matt looked at it before grinning, catching on. He tossed it lightly across the room. The dracowolf barked happily before running after the stick and picking it up. He trotted back to Matt, his tail wagging. "Bit bored, boy? Believe me, learn to savor the downtime," Matt said, stroking Weirdwolf's head.

Just then, the door banged open and Chip hobbled in on three legs. "Where is that thieving mongrel?" he demanded.

Matt looked at Weirdwolf, who in a shocking show of intelligence had sat on the 'stick' hiding it and was looking innocent. "Where is your leg?" said Matt, equally innocent.

"The lizard dog over there stole one of my legs," said Chip angrily, "He just grabbed it and yanked it off."

"I see no leg," said Matt, innocently.

"I know he has it," said Chip, hobbling towards Weirdwolf, "Fork it over or I get out the cattle prod." He held out his hand expectedly.

Matt sighed. "Cough it up, boy," he said. Weirdwolf made a whine/sigh cross and handed over the leg.

Chip snatched it back and examined it. "Oh, look what his acid spit's done. It's worn through the metal. Now I'm going to have to put a new leg on," he said.

"I know you have plenty of extra legs," said Matt, "Stealing one's not bad enough to threaten with zapping."

"Oh, that's not all he's done," said Chip, "He's tore up the couch, been burying shiny items in the ground, and he chased the mailman."

"Oh..." said Matt simply, turning to look at Weirdwolf who was looking innocent again. "Er, since you won't be using that leg anymore, can Weirdwolf have it?" asked Matt.

Chip got a very sneaky look in his eye and he said, "Oh, Weirdwolf can have it alright." He whacked the dracowolf three times on the head with it and then stomped out.

Matt looked at Weirdwolf who seemed unaffected apart from a cross-eyed look. The leg now had a good right angle to it. "Erm...what...shiny items did you bury?" he asked.

There was the sound of a not-too-far explosion and NegaMorph's voice was heard yelling, "Ow! What the hell?"

Matt looked at Weirdwolf. "You didn't..." he said in shock. Weirdwolf appeared to have recovered from his whacking and was panting happily again, apparently oblivious of any wrong-doing. Matt sighed. "Never touch my landmines. You don't know what they do," he said. Weirdwolf whined a little before rolling onto his back, expecting a tummy rub. Matt sighed. "No...bad dog...no burying landmines," he said.

Seeing there was no tummy rub coming, Weirdwolf got up and walked to the door. He started whining while pawing at it. Matt opened the door. "Ok...go away and...bury this instead," he said passing Weirdwolf a landmine version of the goo grenade.

Weirdwolf took the mine and trotted out. Bulkhead was currently doing a landscape painting nearby and was deeply concentrated on his work. As such, he didn't notice Weirdwolf coming over to him and sniffing Bulkhead's foot before turning and lifting his left hind leg.

Matt wandered out behind Weirdwolf in time to hear Bulkhead notice. "Weirdwolf...bad...mutant...thing," said Matt, not sure...after all, Weirdwolf was not exactly a dog.

Weirdwolf ran towards Matt and hid behind him. Shortly afterwards, Bulkhead came stomping towards Matt. "Listen, big guy, Weirdwolf's not what one would call a sentient species," said Matt, "He doesn't think the same way we do."

"He leaked lubricants all over my foot," complained Bulkhead.

"He's part dog, they tend to do that. Not much we can do about it. At least it's not acidic...is it?" said Matt.

Bulkhead grumbled and walked away. "It's gonna rust," he muttered

Matt turned towards Weirdwolf who was hiding his snout under his paws. "You're not making friends today, eh?" he said

Just then, Matt got the much-needed distraction of WARDEN contacting his communicator. Matt turned on his comm. "Yeah...what is it?"

WARDEN's face appeared. "Sir, a type 12 empire shuttle is approaching the planet on the far side of the planet. It has ignored all transmissions."

"Is is another Cybertronian?" asked Matt, sounding exasperated.

"Negative, no Cybertronian life sources detected," said WARDEN.

Matt breathed a small sigh of relief and said, "Any ideas of where it's from then?"

"Empire IFF was detected. It is certainly an Empire vessel," said WARDEN.

"Oh, not now," groaned Matt.

"It may comfort you to know that the vessel is no larger than a two-man shuttle," said WARDEN.

"Oh goody..." said Matt sarcastically.

"Of course, this could mean that the shuttle is carrying EXP bombs," said WARDEN.

"You really need to upload sarcasm," said Matt, sighing.

"Estimated projection places the vessel's landing spot in the Central Congo, near the Tigerhawk National Preserve," said WARDEN.

"Great...why there? There's nothing in that area except maybe rhinos," said Matt.

"Unknown, though an investigate force should be sent there," said WARDEN, "However, current laws in the region around the preserve prohibit bringing weaponry into natural preserves."

"Hah, when has that ever stopped us?" said Matt, cheerfully.

"It would be unwise to spark an international incident with the locals," said WARDEN, "It would be more recommendable to travel incognito, as tourists on a safari vacation."

Matt sighed. "We have dropships, let's use them," he said.

"If the Imperial ship's crew detects the presence of the NSC nearby, they may do something drastic," said WARDEN.

"Fine...but I am taking my guns," said Matt.

WARDEN sighed. "You can throw plasma, you don't NEED a gun."

"It's for...sentimental reasons," said Matt.

Matt was surprised how easily the Autobots took his announcement that the NSC's enemies had turned up to probably cause a mutagenic epidemic. "You did catch the part about certain doom...right?" he asked.

"You'd be surprised to see how often we come across 'certain doom'," said Ratchet.

"Seeing how innocent lifeforms could be potentially injured, I suggest we come with you," said Prowl.

"Not injured as such, the infected would probably be CAUSING the injury," said Matt.

"All the more reason to go and stop it before it happens," said Optimus, "Records of this 'Tigerhawk National Park' show that several Earth species are in danger there."

"Erm, that's _en_dangered, means they have a dangerously low population," said Matt.

"Oh, well, I think that proves my point," said Optimus.

Matt looked at Optimus before sighing. "Oh boy...but if you get impounded at customs, I'm not paying," he said.

"Ah man, not another camping trip," groaned Bumblebee.

Matt looked over. "Camping's not that bad, though on _my_ trips we usually get a sniper rifle," he said.

"My primary concern is that this will be largely in a jungle area," said Optimus, "None of us have any experience with that kind of terrain."

"Ah, I have an idea, though you may hate it. What about Grimlock and his buddies?" said Matt.

"The Dinobots have been mostly living in a forest area," said Prowl, "However, your paleontologists have estimated that dinosaurs, such as the ones they're based on, have lived in jungle-filled areas."

"Correct, if anything, thanks to Scorponok's training, they'll be even better at that kinda terrain," said Matt.

"Scorponok could be useful," said Bulkhead, "I bet those jungles have lots of scorpions in them."

Matt shrugged. Scorpions had only even been encountered once so far in his career...and mostly had been Techo's fault. "Of course, the real problem is going to be how we get them there," said Matt, "Transporting civilian vehicles like you would be easy, but I bet the local residents will find robotic dinosaurs and a giant technorganic scorpion pretty suspicious."

Bulkhead thought for a minute and said, "Hey, I know. You know how the Dinobots were once part of that Dino Drive museum place?"

"Before you broke them and Megatron rebuilt them into attack droids?" said Bumblebee.

Matt looked over. "What's the idea?" he said, getting the feeling he might not like the answer.

"Well, maybe we get them to pretend they're new exhibits for the museum there," said Bulkhead.

"And Scorponok?" asked Prowl.

"Uh, did they have giant scorpions a couple millions ago?" asked Bulkhead.

"Probably not that big...ah, it's worth a try," said Matt, too tired to argue. He had spent all night stopping Weirdwolf using a bazooka rocket as a chew toy.

"Or you could say they're props for a movie," said Sari.

"Yeah, that would work better than- GAH! Sari, what are you doing here?" asked Matt.

"What you think you can take the Autobots on a trip and leave me behind?" said Sari.

"For heaven's sake..." muttered Matt, hitting his head on the wall.

"Sari does have a good idea," said Bumblebee, "I remember seeing an Earth movie where they used ancient amber to create dinosaurs. How did that movie end again?"

"I was there as an observer...everyone got eaten," said Matt, in a bad mood.

"Uh, please tell me that was a joke," said Sari.

Matt grinned, "Nope," before walking out.

Scorponok agreed to the idea of travelling to Africa. He considered it good field training for the Dinobots. However, loading the Dinobots onto the plane was not that simple. Matt's crew had commandeered the plane so the 'cargo' could at least talk while aboard. However the problem was getting them aboard. "Bad robot...on the plane...NOW!" yelled Matt.

Snarl was sitting down and was refusing to move forward.

Matt glared. "Get on or no field trip," he tried.

"Have you tried this?" asked Draco, grabbing Snarl's backside and lifting him up. The triceratops robot was surprisingly heavy as Draco was straining slightly.

Matt sighed and turned dragon to help. "Come on, you...fat...lump," he said.

Between the two of them, they managed to get Snarl inside. Grimlock was a bit more difficult. "Me Grimlock not go in tiny plane," said the Dinobot leader, "Me Grimlock want best plane for flying."

Matt sighed. "It's the only plane, you blockhead," he said.

"Me Grimlock want better plane," complained Grimlock, pouting.

"Ah, for spark's sake," said Ratchet. He activated his EMP generator and put Grimlock to sleep. "Are we going on this primitive flying machine or what?" demanded Ratchet.

"Goody...more back breaking," said Matt, he and Draco going to pull Grimlock aboard.

The flight was equally as un-fun as getting them aboard. While the Dinobots seemed to have the common sense not to try and break out a plane in the air, they were still not fun to have as passengers.

"For the last time, keep it down in there!" said Matt, stomping on the floor.

He turned to Techo, who was the designated pilot. "How much longer?" he said in a twitchy voice.

"Well, you do realize that we have to go through several time zones," said Techo, "So I'm guessing... 4 more hours?"

"Oh god," said Matt, putting his head on the dashboard.

Matt turned on the intercoms for the Autobots' compartment, "Hey guys, you think you could do something to entertain the terrible lizards?"

Optimus' voice said, "Ratchet, why don't you try telling them one of your old war stories."

"Yeah, they always put me to sleep," said Bumblebee. There was the sound of metal smacking metal and Bumblebee said, "Ow."

Matt sighed and accidentally hit the switch that turned on the plane's TV system, starting the last preprogrammed movie to the Dinobot compartment. It was Jurassic Park.

"Erm, you think isn't too much TV bad for you?" asked Techo.

"Oh come on, it's just 4 more hours," said Matt, "Their brains can't rot that quickly."

The air traffic controller was confused when a plane came on. The first thing he heard was confusing, when he was switching through the plane's frequencies to the cockpit. It sounded like some guy going 'Me Grimlock like movie show...' before he got to the cockpit frequency.

"Er, this is Ground Control, is everything alright up there?" asked the traffic controller.

"Erm...yeah...you musta tuned into the TV system. Sorry about that. We're coming in to land. We got some important cargo for the museum at the capital," said a British voice before making the controller jump when he yelled to someone, "NO...BAD DOG...THE JOYSTICK IS NOT A CHEWTOY!"

"Er, do you require assistance?" asked the controller.

"No...don't worry...NO, WEIRDWOLF...DON'T CHEW...AARRRGH!" said the voice and the controller watched on the scanner as the plane went into a loop de loop.

After a minute, the plane got back under control. "Sorry," said the British voice, "Having a slight bit of technical difficulties."

The controller now looked terrified. "Ok..." he said in a small voice before saying, "Please hold..." and getting on the comm to the airfield's crash response team.

Sometime later, the plane managed to land on the airstrip. The crash response team immediately gathered around the plane, along with the airport security.

The door opened and a German Shepherd jumped out the side. One of the response team was sure it flickered as it landed. A teenager in what looked like combat fatigues literally fell out of the plane after the dog. The German Shepherd ran to one of the security officers and jumped on him. He was about to lick him when the teenager yelled, "WEIRDWOLF! NO LICKY!"

The teenager literally tackled the dog off in time. The security officer looked down to see wisps of smoke where the drool had landed. "What kind of dog IS THAT?" he gibbered.

"Erm, Czechoslovakian wolfdog?" said the teen sheepishly. The security officer was about to enquire further when a yell came from an officer looking into cargo. The teenager seemed to tense up at that. When the security team looked suspiciously at the teen, he said, "Er, we've got some props to transport."

The first security office looked in to see several robotic dinosaurs and vehicles. "Weird props...another Jurassic Park movie?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said the teen, "Built by Sumdac Systems, so they're very realistic. We just need to put the 'organic shells' over the dinosaurs."

The security officer just shrugged. "I need a drink..." he said and wandered off.

"Good idea," said the teen before he turned to one of the security officers and said, "Um, can I borrow a dog muzzle?"

That night was luckily not very busy as otherwise alot of people would have seen the convoy of vehicles and robotic dinosaurs. The energy fence that protected the national park was just in front of them.

"Hmm, how do we get past that?" asked Chip.

"Easy," said Matt before blowing a large hole open in the fence.

"Not exactly subtle, are you?" said Chip, as the energy field collapsed as Matt's blasts blew one of the projector towers to bits.

"Nope," said Matt happily.

Chip stared for a moment and said, "Well, it looks like you and Grimlock share something in common after all."

"Silence is golden," said Matt. The wildlife beyond the fence had sensibly decided to leg it when Matt had made his grand entrance.

"Ok, Autobots, we'll have to go on foot from here," said Optimus. He, Ratchet, Prowl, and Dune Runner transformed to robot mode, but Bumblebee and Bulkhead remained in vehicle mode.

Matt and company had also come in full combat gear. "Look...empire droids are pretty tough but their generals are walking, talking nightmares to the ill prepared. Just be careful and do NOT think that cause they're small, they're easy," said Matt

Optimus looked and Bumblebee and Bulkhead and said, "Is there a reason you two haven't transformed?"

"Er, we just want to enjoy a nice drive," said Bumblebee.

"Yeah, a nice drive," chimed Bulkhead.

Prowl wasn't fooled. "You've brought something you were told not to bring, didn't you?" he said.

Matt sighed. "Ok...spill the goods or I take Weirdwolf's muzzle off," he said.

Bumblebee's doors opened and Sari, Lilo, Stitch, Megan, and Gary came out. Bulkhead's doors opened and Jumba and Pleakley came out. "Er, hi Matt?" said Lilo.

Matt sighed. "You know...I should be angry...except...I'm too tired," he said.

Chloe however said, "Ok...how'd you slip away from the Tutor Bot mk 3?"

"Er, it glitched...again," said Megan.

The three kids were running and screaming from the Tutor Bot mk 3 as it was firing its blasters at them. "Surrender humans, resistance is futile," said the Tutor Bot as it blasted at them again.

Matt thought about this after Megan had explained the specifics. "Hmm...that sounds like a nasty glitch."

"Yes, even evil genius Jumba could not figure out malfunction," said Jumba, "So he has arachnid bots examine it."

"Jumba...you remember how we told you that the spiderbots approach sanity from Matt's direction?" said Chloe, smiling a bit.

Matt said, "They probably put the 'glitch' in."

"Ah, so arachnid bots are responsible for catastrophic malfunctions?" said Jumba, "That is so evil, I wish I had thought of that."

"Don't...I'll deal with them later," said Matt.

"I always wanted to go on a safari," said Pleakley, "I even got my safari outfit on." It was true as he was dressed up as the stereotypical 19th century jungle explorer, right down to the pith helmet.

Everyone stared. "Ok...that's the weirdest outfit yet," said Matt.

"Pleakley has been of a concept problem with the term 'out of fashion'," explained Dune Runner.

"You're telling me," said Matt, "Ok...we can cover ground faster if we split up. We do not wanna be outside when it's light. Warden patrol'll find us easier."

"But aren't there lions in there?" asked Gary.

"And tigers and bears, oh my," said Draco sarcastically, earning him a smack from Contrinus.

"No bears...though there is rhino's...angry looking rhino's..." said Matt, his voice trailing off as he looked at, or rather behind, Draco, Chip, and Contrinus.

Chip glanced over his shoulder and said, "I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. Rhinos have rather poor eyesight."

"But really good hearing," said Matt as the rhino lowered its head and charged Chip. Chip nimbly jumped over the rhino which kept going and rammed into NegaMorph. Matt sighed as the rhino carried on with NegaMorph stuck to it, screaming something about 'stopping the crazy thing'. The rhino stopped and shook its head until NegaMorph flew off. Then it started walking away to start grazing. NegaMorph growled and took aim at it. "Ah, ah, ah, endangered species," said Matt.

Matt said, "Now that the entertainment is over, we should split up."

"Are you sure that's a wise idea?" said Prowl, "It could be very easy to get lost in the jungle."

"We'll be perfectly fine. We do this all the time," said Matt.

"We would be able to cover more ground," said Optimus.

"Ok...who goes with who?" said Matt, checking the clip in his rifle.

"The Dinobots will come with me," said Scorponok, changing to robot mode.

"I better come with them," said Optimus, "We can't afford the Dinobots running amuck."

The group nodded. "The stowaways can come with us..." said Matt

"Right, the experiments can... Wait, where's Morph?" asked Chloe.

"Hey guys, check this out!" Everyone looked up to see Morph on a branch of a nearby tree. "I'm King of the Jungle!" cried Morph before grabbing a vine and swinging on it, letting out a Tarzan-like cry as he swung.

Matt sighed. He had a good idea how this was about to end. "3...2...1..." he counted, a splat heard when Morph inevitably hit the tree he had been swinging for. Matt, however, was looking at his wrist comp. "Does the government here have any facilities in the area?" he asked, slapping it.

"I don't know, didn't see any when I checked," said Chloe as she checked her wrist comp.

Ratchet said, "Something's here. I'm picking up residual transwarp energy from somewhere nearby."

Optimus has a slightly concerned look on his face. "Prime, any theories?" asked Bulkhead.

"Not until I'm sure," said Optimus, "We better head out now."

"I don't like this," said Matt, looking at his scanner, "I can't pick up that transwarp stuff, but there is a power source near here."

"Then we better check it out," said Optimus, "Me, Scorponok, and the Dinobots will look for this transwarp energy source. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, you and your 'passengers' can look for the power source. Everyone else, go into one of the groups."

"My team can go with the power source team." said Matt.

"I'm goin' with Lilo and Stitch," said Dune Runner.

"I'll go with the transwarp team," said Chip.

"Me too," said NegaMorph.

"Count us both," said Contrinus, holding Draco's hand.

They all looked up at Morph who was getting himself unstuck from the tree. "I think I'll ride with Dune Runner," he said dizzily.

Matt looked at Megan. "Megan'll be fine with us. The power source may just be a downed satellite or a radio tower, perfectly safe," he said, mainly to NegaMorph.

"I better have a look at what's causing the transwarp energy," said Ratchet.

"Then I'll head with the power source team," said Prowl.

The signal for the power source led through the thicker part of the jungle till unexpectedly, the vegetation changed to evergreen trees. "This...is unusual," said Matt, looking at where it looked like half a tree had literally been sheered off.

Prowl inspected the ground and said, "This is odd, it looks as if the trees have grown here for years."

"Plus they aren't native," said Matt, serious.

"Say, Bulkhead, doesn't look familiar?" asked Bumblebee.

"I don't know, why?" asked Bulkhead.

"But doesn't this setting seem to ring a bell?"

Morph had pulled out a small bicycle bell was playing with it. "Uh, yeah," said Bulkhead.

Matt looked at the tree. "This looks like the trees on the Dinobots' island," he said, worried.

"If that were true, then how'd it get over here?" asked Chloe.

"Wait, now I remember, that big transwarp explosion that blew up Dinobot Island, it must have warped it over here," said Bumblebee.

Chloe called, "Hey...over here." The group ran over to see a large containment door half open. The Sumdac Systems symbol could be seen.

"Ok...that's really unusual," said Matt.

Just then, Megan heard something and turned around. She spotted a large spiderweb hanging from a nearby tree, along with something else. "Uh, Matt, you said you dealt with giant spiders before on Avalar, right?" she said.

"Once...on my first visit," said Matt, aiming his rifle around, "We need to check inside this place, in case whatever that containment door's supposed to shut in comes out."

"Ok then, how about giant wasps?" asked Megan, backing up slightly.

"What?" said Matt turning back to the containment door to see a gigantic wasp thing. "Oh crap!" he yelled and threw a plasma ball into its face before emptying his rifle in its face.

The rifle shots bounced off the wasp's green and black carapace. It flew over them before landing and transforming into a robot with four arms, mandibles over its mouth, and the Decepticon insignia on its chest. It glared at Bumblebee and buzzed, "Bumblebot..."

"Bumblebee, you know bug brain?" Matt said, circling around and nodding to Chloe before they both turned dragon.

"Is that thing Wasp?" asked Bulkhead.

"Was Wasp," said Bumblebee, backing up.

"It'z Wazpinator now, Bulkbot," said the wasp bot before firing green electricity from its smaller arms.

Matt glared. "Ok buddy, you play nice otherwise me and my sister will be picking bits of you out our teeth," he said, baring his fangs.

"Lizard fleshiez not interfere with Wazpinator's revenge," said Waspinator before blasting at Matt and Chloe.

Matt and Chloe both used their respective element shields. "I was hoping you'd do that," snarled Matt before charging and hitting Wasp in the chest, horn first.

Waspinator snarled before grabbing Matt and throwing him into Chloe. Waspinator then turned on Bumblebee and growled. "Wasp, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have tried to expose you as a traitor."

"Wazpinator never forgive!" shouted Waspinator before blasting at Bumblebee.

"Hey, leave him alone!" said Bulkhead before swinging his wrecking ball at Waspinator.

Matt and Chloe both followed up with plasma and lightning blasts that pinned Waspinator against the wall, cracking the rock, violently. Waspinator roared and let out a huge burst of electricity. Chloe just absorbed it before diverting as much as she could. She then sent it right back to sender.

Waspinator was blasted straight into the sky. "Wazpinator will be back!" yelled the bug but as he was being blasted off.

"Reminds me of Team Rocket," said Matt, following Wasp's trajectory till he was out of sight before turning back. Then he noticed the kids missing. "Hey, where did they go?" asked Matt.

"I don't know," said Pleakley, "I was distracted by the giant wasp monster."

"6-2-6 and 6-3-0 are missing as well," said Jumba, looking around.

Matt looked around. "They musta gone inside. Ok, standard approach, guys," he said to Techo and Chris, who pulled out some nasty-looking weapons. "Just in case," he said to the Autobots.

As if responding to the gang's drawn weapons, several panels opened in the nearby rock and laser turrets sprang out and aimed at them.

"Oh, come on," said Techo, clearly annoyed, "Just once, can't something go right?"

The turrets then started shoot high-intensity laser blasts at the gang, forcing them to take cover or end up like Swiss cheese. Matt peered up and sent several plasma bursts at several turrets, bending them into useless angles. "Ok...this really sucks."

"I think we need to fall back," called Prowl, "Those lasers are too fast for me to hit the turrets."

A second laser blast went through the rock between him and Chloe. "Smegging hell...SOMEONE SHOOT THOSE TURRETS! THAT'S A DAMN ORDER!" he yelled.

Then another set of turrets popped out. "Oh, what now?" groaned Matt. The turrets started hosing out some sort of green liquid that started melting holes in the rocks. "Run away!" he gibbered as the rock he was hiding behind was literally dissolved in a matter of seconds.

The group quickly fell back before the lasers or acid could put any painful holes in them. "Ok, who uses acid for defense systems?" asked Chris.

Matt threw a plasma orb at an acid turret, blasting it apart, with the bonus that the exploding ammo feeder caused two more turrets to be covered in acid.

"This will take a while to get through," observed Techo.

"Erm...that acid's actually quite fast," said Matt, showing how the acid appeared to eat at the same speed through anything. The covered turrets were already smoking stumps of half-melted metal.

"Sheesh, what kind of acid is that?" asked Chloe.

"I think I might know," said Prowl, "And if I'm right, Sari and the others are in bigger trouble than they know."

When Waspinator attacked, the kids ran for the nearest shelter, which happened to be the door. They had ran inside, but then a triple-reinforced steel door slammed down behind them.

The inside of the shelter was surprisingly brand new in places compared to how it had been outside. It looked like areas had been patched up and one of these included a section that was folding down to reveal the panel was a cover for some kind of weapon. It seemed to scan around the way they had come before folding back seamlessly into the roof.

"Ok, I'm getting a major sense of déjà vu," said Sari.

"Ih," said Stitch.

Three similar turrets hatched all folded down and aimed at where Sari and Stitch were. The group froze and after a minute, the turrets seemed to lose interest again.

"I think they're reacting to our speaking," whispered Megan.

One of the turrets span round to aim at the sound of her voice, a humming coming from its gun muzzle. Immediately, all six of them held their breaths. Unfortunately, Weirdwolf mistook the turret for a new toy and jumped at it, barking. The blast hit Weirdwolf, causing him to yelp and fall down. "Weirdwolf!" cried Megan, running towards her pet.

Another hail of blasts was sent at Megan, bouncing around her and causing sparks and tiny droplets of melted steel to shower everywhere. Megan flung herself over Weirdwolf's body, not daring to move. None of them dared going forward. Even Morph wasn't that dumb. The turrets all aimed to aim at the two, charging up for a finishing blast when Lilo sent several lasers into the turrets, damaging them.

However, that just set the rest to automatic fire and they started blasting everywhere in the corridor. This, however, proved why the NSC had discontinued sound-based systems. The turrets locked onto the noise of every other turret and proceeded to blast each other.

"Please make it stop!" yelled Morph. Suddenly, all the turrets stopped firing. "What, did I say the secret word?" asked Morph.

The last turret made a funny noise and fell apart. Megan poked it. "Hmm...they shot each other."

Now that the turrets have stopped blasting, they could hear the turrets outside firing. "We have to go out help them," said Lilo, "They could be in trouble."

Stitch cracked his knuckles and went over to the door, getting a grip and tried to tear the door open. After a minute, he said, "Naga can open."

"Here, let me try," said Morph. He spat on his hands and rubbed together. Then he held them towards the door and shouted, "Open sesame!" The door remained unmoving. "Well, that's all I got," said Morph.

Then they heard a voice that sounded like it was talking through slime said, "That door is completely impenetrable. Nobody can break in or out." They looked to see a man who was wearing some kind of containment suit fashioned like a disco suit, but his head was basically a dark green oozing blob with goggles. "Sari Sumdac, my, you have grown, seems like only yesterday you were a little girl in my laser cage."

Megan got up and Weirdwolf looked confused at the newcomer. "Sari? Who's this creep?" she asked.

"He used to be my dad's business rival, back when he had a face and the name Prometheus Black," said Sari.

"Ah yes, Professor Sumdac, I've still got a bone to pick with him. And the name's Meltdown now, children," said Meltdown, "Now, if you would kindly follow me, we can avoid any unnecessary pain."

Lilo said, "We don't have to go anywhere with you, you big dummyhead."

"Cute little spunk," said Meltdown, "But I'm afraid you will have to do as I say, or else..." To demonstrate, he put one hand on one of the broken turrets. Some dark green ooze came out of his hand and melted the turret into an unrecognizable shape. "I assure you, it works even faster on flesh," said Meltdown.

Lilo gulped. "Ok...we can come," she said

Meanwhile, Optimus, Ratchet, Scorponok, the Dinobots, and the other experiments were searching for the source of the transwarp energy. However, there were a few disagreements between them.

"Grimlock not carry puny flesh things," said Grimlock, complaining.

"Come on, we've got shorter legs, we're only slowing everyone down," said Chip.

"Grimlock not carry you," said Grimlock, glaring at Chip.

"Ok, than can we hitch a ride on Snarl?" asked NegaMorph. The triceratops snorted and stomped on NegaMorph. "That's a no then," said NegaMorph when he had regenerated.

Scorponok sighed and said, "Can we please keep moving?"

NegaMorph looked up when he saw something moving out the corner of his eye. When he looked the shape was gone.

Chip, however, was double-checking the park. "Hmm, apparently the natives have been considering this place haunted recently. There was some kind of explosion near here and then there's apparently been sightings of Anansi and Mmoboro," said Chip.

NegaMorph looked over. "Oh great, at least Matt isn't here. A scream of 'Undead' would attract them within minutes," he said.

"Who are Anansi and Mmoboro?" asked Contrinus.

"Two figures from the local folklore," said Chip, "Anansi the Spider and Mmoboro the Wasp."

NegaMorph looked around. "Erm...is this a bad time to say I saw a really huge spider back there?" he said

Draco started to look nervous. "Uh, spirits don't exist on this Earth, right?"

"Actually, I think it may be something else," said Optimus.

Then Chip spotted something, "Er, aren't there supposed to be three Dinobots with us?" The others looked over at the Dinobots at this, but the pterodactyl was gone.

"Oh crap, I saw this movie last night..." said NegaMorph. Then they heard a squawking sound and they looked up to see the missing Dinobot, only he was stuck in an enormous spider web. "Exactly like that film," said NegaMorph, looking around at the deep shadows in the surrounding jungle.

Then blasts of webbing shot down from the trees. The webbing hit Optimus' legs and stuck to the ground. Ratchet tried to help Optimus, but more webbing came down and got him stuck as well.

"Ok, I vote we run for it while we still have our fluids," said Draco.

"Draco, can you really go chicken at a time like this?" demanded Chip.

The next four sprays of webbing hit the experiments before they were swung into a tree and stuck. "Well, considering how we're going to become dinner, I think this is a perfect time to go chicken," said Draco.

NegaMorph said, "Just shut up, you're giving me a headache..."

Then a gigantic black and purple spider descended from the canopy on a silk thread. "Well, well, look at what I've caught in my web," said the spider with a female voice.

NegaMorph sighed and said, "Look...let's get this over with. For a start, I am NOT a demon so don't even say it."

"Blackarachnia, you're still alive?" said Optimus.

"No thanks to you," said the spider.

"But I thought you and Wasp were destroyed in the transwarp explosion," said Optimus.

"Not quite," said the spider, "That blast sent us all the way here. I've been forced to keep hiding from Wasp. I haven't changed to robot mode in weeks. And guess who I blame for that?" The fangs made chomping motions as a little venom dripped out.

Scorponok pushed himself between them. "That's enough. This solves nothing. You are clearly not our target," he said.

The spider hissed and suddenly transformed into a feminine robot with the spider's abdomen hanging off her backside. Her head had several exposed organic-looking circuit lines as well as four eyes and a nose. "Keep out of this," snapped Blackarachnia, "I've got a big score to settle with the fire truck."

Scorponok stared in shock at her. "Blackarachnia?" he said in shock. Sadly the moment was spoiled as Grimlock ran over him...literally

Grimlock bounded forward until he was in front of Blackarachina. "Spider lady, me Grimlock thought you were gone. Me Grimlock so happy you're back," said the robotic T-Rex.

Blackarachnia rolled her optics briefly. The tin head had ruined a perfectly good moment. However, she was good at hiding her feelings. "Well, it's nice to see you too," she said, patting Grimlock on the head. She looked over at the other Dinobots and said, "And you've brought Slag and Swoop too."

NegaMorph said, "Hi there, hate to break up the reunion, but I think Draco's turning blue."

Blackarachnia looked at the experiments and said, "What are these things? You've been collecting new pets, Optimus?"

"They're not pets, they're friends. And as you should know, organics require intakes of oxygen to function," said Optimus.

NegaMorph said, "Any time soon would be nice, he's turning white..." pointing to the now bug-eyed Draco.

"Oh, why not, I'm not that hungry anyways," said Blackarachnia before ripping the webbing off the experiments.

Draco immediately took a few lungfuls of air. "AAiiiir…" he gasped before falling flat on his face.

"Thank you, now if you would be so kind as to release Optimus and Ratchet..." started Chip.

"Oh, I'm not letting them go," said Blackarachnia, "Optimus and I have unfinished business together. And the rustbucket's going to make sure Optimus doesn't try to sneak out."

NegaMorph started to say, "We're not leaving you some hostages..." before a blast of fire engulfed him. "Extra crissspyyyy..." he rasped, his eyes crossed.

Grimlock snarled and said, "Spider lady gets what spider lady wants."

"Er, Scorponok, a little help here?" called Contrinus.

However, Scorponok's gaze was fixed on Blackarachnia, his face blushing red. "Geh, gabba, snagga-wagga..." he sputtered.

Optimus sighed and said, "For spark's sake, not again."

"Hmm... this will be fun," said Blackarachnia, "You there, whatever your name is, help Grimlock and Slag carry those two Autobots."

"Nice try," said Chip, "But Scorponok's too well trained to fall for your female-"

"Yes, yes, right away," said Scorponok, jumping up and picking up Optimus.

"You're giving a bad name for the rest of us!" shouted Draco.

NegaMorph smirked. "I'd give up for now, he's got an incurable virus: the luuuurrrve bug," he said.

Chip glared and said, "This isn't funny. We need to find the others and-" The pterodactyl bot, which had been freed from the web, flew down and snapped its beak at them. "Or...we could go along and wait for another opportunity," said Chip.

As the Dinobot was leading them away, Contrinus said, "So your name's Swoop. How comes you haven't told us?"

"Because he's mute, birdbrain," said NegaMorph.

A little while later, Meltdown had escorted the kids, Weirdwolf, Stitch, and Morph to his lab. "Welcome to my humble abode. It may not be much, but you'll learn to like it."

"Who says we're gonna stay here?" said Sari.

"Says me," said a frail, skinny-looking old man wearing a leotard, goggles, and a pair of pistons sticking out of his shoulders.

Stitch looked at the old man and laughed. "What's so funny?" demanded the old man.

"Ica chooka seeka," said Stitch, holding his thumb and forefinger close together.

"I'm too tiny, eh?" said the old man. Then the pistons on his shoulder started crackling with electricity before slamming down several times. Each time they went down, the old man grew larger and buffer until he was 10 feet of muscle. "Who's too tiny now, huh?" he said with a deeper voice.

Stitch's ears went flat. "Naga so ica chooka seeka?" he said.

"That'll be enough, Colossus Rhodes," said Meltdown, "I have 'special plans' for our guests."

Stitch perked up at this. He had not liked the way Meltdown had said that. He moved in front of Lilo. "Naga!" he said forcibly.

"Ah, isn't that sweet?" said Meltdown, "Don't worry, you'll be treated nicely until I'm ready. You'll all get your own cell of indestructible steel. Won't that be fun?"

Morph said, "I hate to point this out but I have no bones...I can squeeze out."

"Hmm, we'll have to test that, won't we?" said Meltdown before snapping his fingers. Colossus gruffly grabbed Morph with one hand.

Colossus proceeded to squeeze Morph. "That's actually quite nice," said Morph, not bothered that he was being flattened.

Colossus proceeded to bend Morph into many shapes. By the time he was done, Morph looked like a balloon seal. Morph, not bothered by the strenuous test, clapped his 'flippers' and barked like a seal. "The little alien's right," said Colossus, "He's boneless like putty."

"Yup, only one thing can hold me," said Morph.

"Well, why don't you tell us, my little extraterrestrial friend?" said Meltdown.

"Uh, alien, who said he was an alien?" said Megan.

"Don't play dumb with me," said Meltdown, "I've been keeping up with the news. I know you're all aliens. Except for you two." He pointed at Gary and Weirdwolf. "I'm not sure what you are. But you'll all make fine test subjects."

"Well, you're gonna have trouble keeping me in," said Morph.

"Oh no?" said Meltdown, "I think I will. I'll put you in a container at the bottom of a pool of water, so you won't be able to escape without drowning."

Morph rolled his eyes and said, "That's Stitch's inescapable prison, not mine." Stitch glared at Morph and growled.

"Really?" asked Meltdown.

"Yeah, duh," said Morph.

"Oh, those stupid people on the Internet," said Meltdown, "Well, then I'll put you in a room made of rubber where there will be no electrically conductive materials."

"That's Sparky's, but he's not even here...sounds cool though," said Morph. It started to dawn on Meltdown that it wasn't just Morph's bones that were not all there...

"In that case, we'll keep you under a concentrated beam of sunlight, just weak enough to keep you from bursting into flames," said Meltdown.

"Nope, that's Ghostfreak's," said Morph.

"Oh, we're wasting time here," said Meltdown, "What is your inescapable prison?"

Morph looked thoughtful and said, "Well..."

**5 minutes later...**

"Dumb, dumb, dumb, never tell the villain how to trap you in a cage!" said Morph

"You probably shouldn't have helped us build the cage either," said Meltdown.

"I know, dumb!" said Morph.

"So, a glass container too small for you to morph into anything useful suspended inside a tank of acid, that's your inescapable prison, eh?" said Meltdown.

"Well, that or Thep Khufan bandages, but good luck trying to find any on this planet," said Morph. Stitch glared and made 'shut up' motions.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, it's time to start preparing for your...treatments," said Meltdown.

"Treatments?" said Gary, nervously.

"Oh, don't worry, I've had a lot more experience now and you're still developing," said Meltdown, "I'm certain that my formula for making a transforming human won't mutate you at all. At least, not badly."

"Don't you dare, you big bully," said Lilo. Lilo shot a laser at Meltdown's head, which went right through. Meltdown staggered for a bit before his head reformed.

"A very, very interesting trick," said Meltdown, "It seems I'm not the first one to experiment on you." Lilo gulped, backing up. Stitch got in front of her, frowning at Meltdown

"Since when could you regenerate?" asked Sari, "Come to think of it, how'd you get here in the first place?"

"Well, I'm certain your friend Optimus Prime has told you what happened the last time he's met me," said Meltdown.

"Yeah, you got zapped with your own gizmo and got turned into a puddle," said Sari cheekily.

Meltdown glared at her and said, "I was not expecting my genetic modifier to be able to affect me. It caused the rest of my body to become the same acid I secreted, becoming entirely liquid. But now, I have full control of it, plus I'm not bound to a fully solid state."

Megan glared. "Now you really are a wet idiot," she said nastily.

"Careful, or you lose that pretty little face," said Meltdown, his hands becoming covered in acid.

"And damage your 'test subject'?" said Megan, smirking.

"Oh, you'll be able to heal back, isn't that right, Lady NegaMorph?" said Meltdown.

Megan's face turned pale. "How do you know so much about us?" she said.

"Oh, I've made a few friends since that idiotic spider teleported this lab all the way to Africa," said Meltdown.

Another voice was heard, "One willing to help out if it means I get rid of some...pains in the neck." A cybernetic suit covered in black goo came in…Splicer.

"I thought something smelled rotten in here," said Lilo.

"Ih, iky smalatoto," said Stitch, waving the air away from his nose.

Splicer smiled manically. "How about I rip that lovely fur off?" he snarled before seemingly getting a grip.

"Mr. Splicer has been invaluable help," said Meltdown, "Not only has he repaired and upgraded the security systems, but his knowledge about genetic splicing is extremely informative."

"And in exchange, Mr. Black is gonna help restabilize my DNA...uuurgh," said Splicer wincing from a pain.

"I thought something seemed different about Splicer," said Morph, "He doesn't look too vibrant, does he?"

"Shut up you. It's your dear captain's fault I am in this mess as it is," snarled Splicer.

"Speaking of which, where are your friends who were attacking my front door?" asked Meltdown.

"Knowing Matt, he's probably blown up what that joker set up and is headed this way with murder in mind," said Megan, leaning against the wall of her cell, smirking.,

"Oh, I hope so," said Splicer, his sharp claws glinting in the light, "Because I've got murder on my mind."

"He beat you before, you big dummy," said Lilo.

"I'm better prepared this time," said Splicer, "Now hush up before I have your brain as an appetizer."

Meltdown said, "Now, now, Mr. Splicer. I cannot make a cure if you devour the test subjects."

Meanwhile, the door that had trapped Lilo n co began to glow, before blowing off its runner. Matt peered into the gloom. "Ok, first things first; we find and tear whoever set those defenses on us into tiny bits," he snarled, walking through the hole.

Just as Matt was walking in, he got a call on his comm. He paused and answered it, "Hello?"

"Finally, I've been trying to get you for ages," said Chip's voice, "What were you doing that you were so busy you couldn't answer your communicator?"

"Oh, not much...acid turrets, lasers, military grade blastdoors...the usual, you?" said Matt sarcastically.

"Well, we kinda ran into a Decepticon over here and we're kinda trapped," said Chip.

"What? Waspinator attacked you too?" asked Matt.

"Who's Waspinator?" asked Chip.

"Giant wasp mutant who has more screws loose then that time you upset the spiderbots," said Matt.

"Ah, well, we're dealing with a giant spider mutant who apparently has a history with Optimus," said Chip.

"Oh great, just get a rolled-up newspaper," said Matt.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" yelled a female voice on the other end. Matt winced since her volume caused the comm's speaker to squeal. "Who is this?" said the voice.

Matt stared straight ahead before saying in a distant voice, "I'm sorry, the number you have dialed is incorrect. Please hang up and try again later..." before turning the comm. off.

He turned to the others and said, "Sorry, but we need to hold off storming the castle. The others are apparently in over their heads."

Chloe sighed. "Ok, who'd you piss off this time?" she said.

"Um, apparently a Decepticon spider of some kind," said Matt.

"Oh great..." said Chloe, "I hate spiders."

"Well, I don't care for the giant variety myself," said Matt, "We better go before it decides to have them for dinner."

Fortunately, Matt was able to pick up Chip's comm. signal and was soon following it. Their trek led them to a cliffside that had several cave openings at various heights, several large enough for something the size of Grimlock or Scorponok to go in or out of.

Matt shone a light in. "Chip, Draco, Contrinus?" he called before adding more hesitantly, "...NegaMorph even?"

The group walked into the nearest ground level cave. "Uh, did you say there was a Decepticon spider involved?" asked Bumblebee.

"That's what Chip said," said Matt.

"Right... I'll go wait outside," said Bumblebee.

"Oh, what's your hurry, bug boy?" said a female voice.

Matt gulped and looked up to see the biggest spider he'd ever seen in his life. While Matt did not mind spiders, he had a thought. 'If they're bigger than me, they die' which explained why he tried to charge a plasma orb.

"Oh no, not the spider bot again," said Bulkhead.

"I thought Blackarachnia was gone for good," said Prowl.

"Well, I thought the same about Wasp," said Bumblebee, activating his stingers.

"Giant spiderbot...GIANT SPIDERBOT!" gibbered matt

"Dat's de second biggest arachnid I've ever seen," said Dune Runner.

"WE'RE DOOMED! THERE ISN'T A MYTHBISTER DVD BIG ENOUGH...ow," said Matt as Chloe hit him.

"Is there something I'm missing out on?" asked Blackarachnia.

Matt by now was at the manic laughter stage. Chloe just sighed. "I take it you have our friends," she said, pushing her brother aside.

"That's right," said Blackarachnia, as she started descending on a thread, "I take it that the odd little aliens are with you lot."

"Hehehe...aliens..." gibbered Matt, apparently addressing a stone.

Chloe sighed, "Yes, they are. I presume you're Cybertronian. Please turn to robot form otherwise Matt'll be like this all day."

"Alright then," said the giant spider before transforming into a female robot. "Is that better?"

Matt's gibbering stopped a bit. Chloe said, "He'll be fine. Now where are our friends?"

"Oh, they're right here," said Blackarachina, reaching up to the ceiling and pulling off a cocoon that had been hanging there. The inside was hollow and the four experiments were inside of it, looking out through a small window.

"Actually, it's rather comfortable in here," said Chip, "Though it could use a little more elbow room."

Chloe glared, her eyes blazing yellow. "Let them go...NOW!" she said.

"Eh, whatever, I doubt they could have anything I want," said Blackarachnia, ripping the cocoon apart and letting the experiments fall out.

"Say, where's Scorponok and the Dinobots?" asked Chris.

"They're...out to lunch," said NegaMorph.

Matt, who had by now managed to regroup his sanity, said, "Define 'out to lunch'," looking suspiciously at Blackarachnia.

"Well, it's a bit embarrassing, actually," said Blackarachnia.

Just then, Grimlock came walking around a corner in his robot mode. "Spider lady, me Grimlock finished piling those rocks like you asked."

"Ah, case in point," said Matt.

Chloe sighed and said, "So basically the tin heads are smitten."

"Yep, even the one isn't all metal," said NegaMorph.

Then Scorponok arrived in his scorpion mode and said, "Blackarachnia, I've finished carving out that tunnel you-"

Then Grimlock kicked Scorponok away and said, "You keep away from spider lady! She like me Grimlock best!"

The gang sweatdropped as Scorponok tackled Grimlock and they began beating the stuffing out of each other. "Oook..." said Matt.

Matt turned to Blackarachnia. "Ok...freaky person, what is the point of this?" he said with his usual absence of any tact or self preservation.

"Well, I need to keep this place fortified in case Wasp ever finds it. Using them for labor speeds things up, even though their continuous competition for me does get on my circuits," said the she-spider.

"Why not just, I dunno, stop being a lazy ass?" said Chloe, coldly.

Blackarachnia glared and said, "You think I just stumbled into these caves that happened to be large enough for me to stand in? I had to carve a lot of it out of the rock. It took me months to get to this point. Don't you think that I deserve to have a little time off while someone else could do the hard work?"

"No, you're a Decepticon. You're lucky you're inside cause WARDEN would love to nuke you with an EMP cannon," said Chloe, narrowing her eyes.

"And you're a human being, which means you're lucky I haven't poisoned you yet," hissed Blackarachnia.

Dune Runner stepped between the two of them and said, "Ladies, ladies, let's not let dis get outta hand."

"Not human...just look that way..." said Chloe. That might have defused things had Chloe not added "...lady." on the end in the sort of tone used for openings in a medium range war.

Blackarachnia hissed and was about to strike as Chloe when Dune Runner said, "Er, is dis a bad time to ask where Optimus and Ratchet are?" Chloe turned dragon and glared angrily at Blackarachnia, before they both glared angrily at Dune Runner. "I be guessing it a bad time?" he said weakly.

Scorponok noticed the brewing trouble and transformed to robot mode. "Blackarachnia, my darling, is there some way I may assist?" asked Scorponok.

Blackarachnia refused to turn away from Chloe. "Not now, dear..." she said out the corner of her mouth.

"But surely there's something I could do," said Scorponok, turning his back and putting on a dramatic pose, "I would climb to the top of this planet's tallest mountain for you."

Matt looked up and Dune Runner. "It's enough to make me barf," he said. Matt suddenly grinned. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" he said

"Kick him in de rear?" asked Dune Runner. Matt nodded and Dune Runner grinned as well. "Ok, Scorpy, dis is gonna hurt me more dan it's gonna hurt you," said Dune Runner before planting his landing gear right into Scorponok's skid plate. Due to Dune Runner's super strength, Scorponok ended up being hurled straight into a wall of the cave. "Well, what do ya know, dat didn't hurt me at all."

"Think you can break them up too?" said Matt, pointing to his sister and Blackarachnia. He was personally shocked the air between their eyes wasn't sizzling.

Dune Runner took one look and said, "No way, mon."

Scorponok was peeling himself off the walls. He shook his head and said, "Ow, what happened?"

"My guess, your technorganic hormones got woken up for the very first time," said Chip.

Matt sighed. "Get used to it. Now someone help me before Chloe and Spider-Woman try to eat each other," he said. Chloe had started to glare and snarl a bit.

"Wow, the air's really buzzing with intensity," said Chris.

Bulkhead tilted his head and said, "Yeah, I hear it."

Techo sighed. "Mate...it was just a figure of...wait, there it is," he said, hearing a faint buzz.

Matt sighed and turned dragon as well before going up very slowly and saying, "Excuse me..."

Just then, a large green and black wasp came flying down the tunnel. "SPIDERBOT!" yelled the wasp, its front legs cracking with green electricity.

That turned Blackarachnia's attention away from Chloe. "It's Waspinator!" she cried. She glared at the mercs and said, "You lead him here!"

"No I did...OW!" began Matt before Blackarachnia hit him. This sadly caused Chloe to lunge at Blackarachnia.

Now Wasp might have been a couple of computer chips short of a PC but even he stopped. This was an unusual sight. Deciding that Blackarachnia was unavailable for a target, Waspinator settled for the next best thing. "BUMBLEBOT!" Waspinator began firing green lightning bolts at Bumblebee.

Matt got up unsteadily. What small part of his brain that wasn't gibbering focused on Waspinator as a threat. "Oi...bug boy...pick on someone your own size."

Waspinator turned to glare at him. "You my size," he buzzed.

Matt's brain quickly realized the error in his last statement... "Er, uh, shouldn't you be collecting pollen or something?" asked Matt.

"Actually, that would be bees," said Chip, "Wasps and hornets are predatory insects."

"I was afraid you'd say that," said Matt and was forced to dodge to the side as Wasp opened fire on him. Matt was forced to dive behind a rock to avoid getting 'stung'. "Can I get some back up over here?" he called, "This is outside my area of experience."

Matt spat a plasma orb at the angry techno-organic as Bumblebee joined him behind the rock. "So...how'd you beat bug brain last time?" said Matt conversationally.

"Uh, I didn't," said Bumblebee, "He just blew up with transwarp energy."

"Then how is he here and blasting us?" demanded Matt.

"I dunno..." said Bumblebee, as another blast shot over their heads.

"Great, usually I kill the wasps, not the other way round," snapped Matt.

Then Matt threw another plasma orb and this one was better aimed. It neatly vaporized Wasp's antennas. "Ha, that oughta show him," said Matt, but paused when technorganic fibers started coming out Wasps' head and wove together to form new antenna.

"Oh, I did not know he could do that," said Bumblebee.

"Oh good...what else can he doooaassandsjandj!" said Matt as another shot earthed on his horns.

Bumblebee jumped. "Hey...you ok?" he asked urgently.

Matt grinned faintly. "Yes maaa...I'll do the trash after my naaaap," he said his eyes spiraling.

Waspinator then turned his attention to Blackarachnia, who had just got thrown into a wall by Chloe. Before Chloe could tackle her again, Waspinator rammed her out of the way and hovered over Blackarachina. "Spiderbot pay for betraying Waspinator," growled the techno-organic while pointing his stinger straight at Blackarachina's lower torso.

Scorponok got up to see this and ran forward, pushing Blackarachnia out of the stinger's path, only to be stabbed in the arm himself. Scorponok gritted his teeth before pulling Waspinator out. "You've done enough damage here," he said before grabbing some loose webbing from the walls and wrapping them around Waspinator. Waspinator tried to escape by transforming into robot mode, but Scorponok was relentless and soon had Waspinator in a silk straightjacket.

Matt and Bumblebee peered over their cover to see this. "Hmm...bet you a credit Scorponok punts him," said Matt.

However, the wound in his arm started to act up and Scorponok dropped Wasp, who immediately tried to work his way about of the webbing. Scorponok clutched his wounded arm with his other arm and leaned back against the side of the tunnel with a moan.

"What's up with Scorponok?" asked Draco.

"Wasp's venom is interfering with Scorponok's techno-organic tissue," said Prowl, "He can't heal himself. We need Ratchet's help."

Matt glared after Wasp. "Yeah, let's get bug boy later," he said before changing back to human to use his comm.

"Scorpion-bot, you think thiz web can hold Wazpinator?" shouted Waspinator, "Well, errrrr, you, grrrrr, are, ERRRRRGGGG... right."

Matt sighed, turning his back. "Ratchet? We got a little problem here," he said, finally getting through.

Blackarachnia was looking at Scorponok, who had mech fluid dribbling down his arm. Normally, she'd just run away after someone took a shot for her. She was used to manipulating bots with their attraction to her. But something was different about Scorponok. Her conscience, a program she probably should have deleted long ago, wouldn't allow her to consider running away now.

Chloe was glaring at Waspinator however, still in dragon form and you could be sure a mouthful of razor sharp dragon teeth an inch from your face can be unnerving, even if you are a bit nuts.

Matt shook his comm. and said, "Why can't I get an answer from him?"

"Because I tied up the old bot in my web," said Blackarachnia, "I had to make sure Optimus wouldn't try to do something."

Matt glared and said, "Get here now or I'm gonna pull off your extra legs."

Blackarachnia shrugged and said, "Might as well. I'm going to end up locked in a lab either way."

Matt stopped before saying, "What about Wasp?"

Chloe glared and said, "He'll stay here if he knows what's good for him..."

"Not fair," whined Wasp, "Wazp alwayz being treated bad. Autobotz betray Wazp, spiderbot betray Wazp, why everyone trying to backstab Wazp?"

"Maybe if you weren't a jerk all the time, Longarm wouldn't have used you as a scapegoat," said Bulkhead.

Chloe nodded. "Oh, please try to escape...the auto-doc said I needed more iron," she snarled.

"You know, Wasp has a point," said Bumblebee, "Maybe if we treated him better, he wouldn't be so mean." He patted Wasp on the head, only for the technorganic to snap at his servo.

"Uh, I think he needs a psychiatrist before he's anywhere near sociably acceptable," said Matt.

"What's a psychiatrist?" asked Prowl.

"What do you do with total nutters on Cybertron?" asked Matt out of interest.

"We just throw them into the Stockade, why?" asked Bumblebee.

"Ah..." said Matt, distantly. Matt looked at Waspinator. "He is definitely a bit nuts...and that is a professional opinion."

Just then, Blackarachnia came back with Ratchet and Optimus, Ratchet keeping his magnetic clamps pointed on her. "I ain't letting a Decepticon poison me twice," he said.

"You don't look that bad," said Bumblebee.

"I'm a medibot, I have a very adaptive immunity drive," said Ratchet, "A couple shots of an antidote makes it very hard for me to be affected anymore."

"And don't I know he got the antidote in the first place," said Bumblebee shuddering.

Matt glanced at Waspinator, who was trying to tear his way out of his straightjacket with zero success. "We can't just leave him tied up like that," said Matt, "He needs to go to a clinic or something."

Ratchet was currently busy trying to work on Scorponok's wound. "Well, it's not like we have rehabilitation centers on Cybertron. I'm pretty sure Sentinel wouldn't put up with the likes of Wasp."

"Perhaps little girl could vork vith giant wasp robot," said Jumba, "She has excellent talent of turning from bad to good."

Matt sighed. "That depends if we can find her," he said.

Suddenly, NegaMorph's ears twitched. "Hold on," he said, "I'm picking up a signal. It's from Megan."

Matt looked over. "Cool...can you get FM radio on that?" he said and ducked a few fangs.

"It's not like that," said NegaMorph, "It's a negative energy signal, sent through shadows. Now be quiet, I need to focus on it."

Matt watched and after a minute said, "Unable to get a signal?"

NegaMorph said, "Oh, you can help, can you? Now shut UUUNNGH!" he said as Matt twisted NegaMorph's ear like the knob on a radio.

"Did that help?" asked Matt, grinning.

"THAT HURT, YOU-" NegaMorph paused and said, "Wait, I'm getting the message '...prisoners...help us...Meltdown's lab...' Not very clear though."

Matt grabbed NegaMorph's other ear and twisted it, before shrugging, grabbing both his ears and twisting NegaMorph's head 180 degrees. NegaMorph winced but listened as the rest of the message came in, but making a mental note to do something permanent to Matt later.

"Ok, they're being held inside an underground lab being run by this whack-job named Meltdown and Splicer's there helping him. Apparently Meltdown's going to use the kids to either create a transforming organic or to create a cure for Splicer's deteriorating health," said NegaMorph.

Matt and the Autobots present all turned to look. "Meltdown?" said Bulkhead at the same time as Chloe and Matt both yelled "Splicer?"

"Er, who are dey?" asked Dune Runner.

"Splicer's a major pain in our asses who have tried to kill us repeatedly," said Matt.

"And Meltdown's a twisted acid-spewing freak who hates machines," said Bumblebee.

"He once tried to remove my technological half so he could use the rest for his genetic experiments," said Blackarachnia.

"Oh great, I suppose this is a bad time to mention EXP virus," said Matt.

"EX what?" asked Ratchet.

"The EXP virus, it turns whoever it infects into experiments like these guys," said Matt, pointing at the experiments, "Lilo has it, but she has an inhibitor to keep it under control."

Chloe said, "And suddenly I had an idea what'll happen should a total fruit loop like this Meltdown get his hands on a working sample." She shuddered.

"Then we need to find her and the others before he could do that," said Optimus.

"Yeah, good luck with that," said Blackarachnia, walking away.

Matt glared after her. "Oh, you're going?" he said, icily.

"And end up in the creep's clutches again? I think not," said Blackarachnia.

"Ok...so you're gonna let that creep play blender with a kids DNA?" Matt said, slyly.

Blackarachnia hesitated at that. "Matt's right," said Optimus, "Meltdown has no scruples about what he does to get what he wants. He'll probably do worse than what he did with his earlier experiments with them. Are you just going to walk away and let an innocent young girl become a mutant...Elita-One?"

NegaMorph began to say, "She's already a mu...ack-" but was silenced as Matt squeezed his neck with plasma control.

Blackarachnia turned to glare. "So...you helping or not?" said Chloe.

Blackarachnia intensified his glare and said, "If I'm helping, it's only get to payback on Meltdown, nothing more. Don't think you could bring up old ties on me."

"Of course," said Chloe.

"If she's going, I better come to..." started Scorponok before wincing.

"You're not going anywhere," said Ratchet, "You need to heal up. And attacking Meltdown's not gonna help with that."

"Ok, NegaMorph, did the message say where they were?...oh," he said, noticing that he'd been a bit over-enthusiastic in silencing NegaMorph's throat. NegaMorph removed his head and straightened out his neck before putting back on again. "Uh, sorry about that," said Matt, "I guess I got carried-" NegaMorph shut him up by sending a piece of his plasma down Matt's throat. Matt's eyes crossed before he burped up a fireball. "Yummy," he croaked before keeling over.

Soon afterwards, the gang was back at the metal door. "Er, we kinda already been here before," said Matt.

Chloe sighed. "This must be where they are. They vanished here," she said.

NegaMorph glared. "And you didn't look why?"

Matt pointed to the various destroyed or melted rocks. "We had other things on our minds..."

"Any of those traps still functional?" asked Bumblebee.

"I don't think so, we wrecked em pretty good..." said Matt, before noticing a CCTV camera with a light blinking. "Oh look, Big brother is watching," he said, before waving cheekily at the lens.

"We better be careful then," said Optimus, "There's no telling what Meltdown may have waiting for us."

Chloe shrugged as Matt started making some rude faces in the camera. "Give it a minute. I think in about 5 minutes someone'll come to try and make him stop," she said, sighing.

"We don't have dat time, Lilo and Stitch could be in big trouble right now," said Dune Runner.

"Oh puh-lease," said Matt, "This guy probably doesn't even know what to do with them. Probably a total quack."

Just then, the door opened a small old man stepped out. "You here to see my boss?" he said, "You gotta go through me first."

Matt looked at the old Man. "Erm...you sure?" he said

"Uh, Matt, you might wanna be careful with him," said Bulkhead, stepping back.

"What's he do? Fall over on me?" said Matt.

Then the piston on the old man's shoulders started pumping and he swelled up in size and muscles. "How'd you like me to fall on you now?" said Colossus Rhodes.

Matt looked up. "Wow...how much Weetabix do YOU eat?" he asked, before looking at the hinges on the door and blasting them. The blast door slowly fell forwards and hit Colossus on the head. However, he barely noticed it and then picked up the blast door like it was a magazine. "Oh, this is gonna hurt," said Matt before he was swatted with said door.

Chloe watched in shock as Matt was sent flying into the treeline before glaring. "If I may make a suggestion," said Prowl, "If you want to hit him, I'd aim for his pistons." Chloe snarled angrily and sent a bolt of lightning sailing into the pistons on Colossus's back.

The pistons acted like lightning rods and sent the electricity through Colossus's techno-organic circuits. Needless to say, it shorted him out and knocked him out.

"Nobody swats my brother..." she yelled. Matt heard this as he came back. "Aw that's so..." he began before Chloe added "...except me!"

Matt sighed. "Never mind," he said

"I say we find Sari and the others before he wakes up," said Bumblebee.

Matt nodded and walked in, stepping on Colossus as he walked in.

**A few minutes earlier…**

Inside, Meltdown and Splicer were prepping up the lab equipment. "These test subjects should have very promising results," said Meltdown, "If not, I'll at least get very useful data from them."

There was some angry grumbling as Colossus walked out the security room and walked in the direction of the doors, muttering about smartasses.

"Oh, I haven't had this much fun in a long time," said Splicer. He was reaching over to flip a switch when his arm went limp and started oozing out of his armor sleeve.

"Looks like you won't to have any more fun for a long time before long," said Megan.

Splicer snarled and sent a tentacle to slap Megan across the face. This was unfortunate as it was loud enough to drown out a distant buzzing/explosion as made be made by someone being electrocuted. "I suggest you watch your tone, child," said Splicer, "Because I'm thinking of using you for the most unpleasant procedure."

Weirdwolf had been licking his own wounds, the acid on his tongue surprisingly have no affect asides from cauterizing the wounds. But then he heard Splicer being mean to Megan. Weirdwolf glared at Splicer and growled before barking at him, and not in his usual happy barking.

Splicer turned and roared angrily in Weirdwolf's face. Weirdwolf only paused for a second before continuing his furious barking again.

Splicer snarled and turned to Meltdown. "Do we need the dog as well? I'm hungry," he said.

Meltdown looked at Weirdwolf and said, "Well, I suppose we don't really require a non-sapient being, but I'd like to have a look at his DNA."

"I'll try to leave leftovers," said Splicer before opening Weirdwolf's cell and reaching for him.

Weirdwolf immediately leapt out and bit Splicer on the hand. "Yeow!" yelped the symbiote, pulling his hand away. However, Weirdwolf was hardly done and grabbed onto his leg. "Gah...get him off, get him off!" yelled Splicer, freaking out and shaking his leg desperately.

"Obviously you don't know how to treat a mutt right," said Meltdown before planting a well-aimed kick at Weirdwolf's side.

Meltdown's kick however had a little unfortunate side effect as Weirdwolf landed in a pile of nanite canisters. Splicer smirked at Meltdown's horrified expression. "Yeah, I can see that," he said sniggering.

One of the canisters had broken and covered Weirdwolf in a weird liquid metal. The dracowolf shook himself, but it refused to get off him. Then Weirdwolf growled and went for Meltdown's leg.

It turned out acid slobber was good for a basic immunity to other corrosives...as Meltdown found out to his shock. "Argh...off me now, you mutt!" he yelled.

Megan grinned towards Lilo and Sari. "I wish we'd brought popcorn," she said with a smirk

Then Meltdown grabbed Weirdwolf by his wing membrane. "Allow me to show you what real acid feels like," he said as he started leaking out acid through his glove.

Weirdwolf began to yelp and whine as the acid began to eat into him.

"Leave him alone, you bullies!" shouted Megan.

"Yeah, what she said," said Stitch.

"You know, Splicer, I think I have a nastier idea for this mongrel," said Meltdown.

"And would that be?" asked Splicer excitedly.

"Well, my 'former colleague' left behind several interesting bits of equipment. Those nanites were one of such. She also left what I believe to be a transwarp drive, from what I've heard of Cybertronians," said Meltdown, "I think we should send this beast to the hyperspace kennel."

Megan jumped up at this. "NO!" she yelled, trying to break out.

"Ooh, I like your thinking," said Splicer, "And where is this transwarp drive?"

Meltdown walked over to a strange canister. "It is right here," he said.

Splicer examined it and said, "Yes, it is functional. Not very useful all by itself, but good enough to make a temporary wormhole."

Weirdwolf was just whining weakly from the acid. Megan was practically screaming wordlessly now. "You let go of Weirdwolf, or so help me..." started Gary, grabbing the bars of his cell. All that happened was that he got knocked back by a blast of electricity.

"Oh, did I forget to mention I keep your bars charged with 4000 volts at all time?" said Meltdown.

Gary glared. "I won't be in here forever." The ground shook as an explosion was heard.

Splicer looked in the direction of the noise and said, "I believe we have unwanted company."

An internal camera showed that the internal blast doors now had a large hole in it. The Autobots wandered through the hole with, "Matt, now you're in for it. Even if you catch him, his singing'll probably make your head explode," said Lilo.

"Oh, I have my own backup security," said Meltdown, "They're about to get their hands very full."

"Where IS Colossus?" said Splicer, out of interest.

Weirdwolf finally managed to get his strength up to spit a blast into Meltdown's face. The chemical reaction between the two acids was rather interesting. Instead of being cancelled out or hurting Meltdown, Weirdwolf's acid became a cloud of very smelly gas as soon as it came into contact with Meltdown's acidic skin.

"Gah...that's it! Splicer, get rid of this mongrel," said Meltdown, finally snapping.

"With pleasure," said Splicer as he pressed several buttons on the transwarp generator. It started glowing blue before a blue portal opened up above them.

"So long, Fido," said Meltdown before tossing Weirdwolf into the portal. It seemed some of Matt had rubbed off as Weirdwolf had the last 'word', blowing a doggy raspberry as he vanished into the portal.

Megan's eyes glowed red and she growled, "You are going to pay for that."

"And how will you accomplish that, my dear?" said Meltdown.

"You just wait until Matt lets me out," said Megan.

"Matt isn't going to get here," said Meltdown, "He'll be down for the count before he even gets to the door."

"We've heard that before. It didn't work last time either, but the building's still standing so that's ok," said Lilo.

Meltdown just smiled and said, "I have more security than just laser turrets, and your friends are going to find that out the hard way."

Meanwhile, Matt blew another door open. "Hello...pizza delivery."

Chloe said to Prowl, "You'd be surprised how often that works."

However, it was not Meltdown's lab, as Matt had figured, but an underground holding pen of some kind. "For crying out loud, how many rooms does this base have?" demanded Matt.

He was about to turn to leave when he noticed the OTHER door on the other side of the pen. "Let's try there," he said and wandered into said door. Just as the others were walking in, Matt was suddenly flying backwards and smacked into a wall. "Ow..." he groaned. "Hey...I found some friends," he said weakly from where he had landed.

The others looked to see the same praying mantis/scarab monster they've fought before. Besides was one creature that looked like several bat parts were stuck together in a Frankenstein-like fashion and the other looked a bit like a humanoid shark with a crab claw on its right arm and a squid for its left arm, or arms as the case may be.

"What the hell are those things?" yelled Chloe.

"Meltdown's previous attempts to make a transforming human," said Prowl.

"Oh...goody," said Chloe weakly, "Trial and error is popular here."

"Wait, didn't we lock up that bug thing back at Detroit?" said Bulkhead. Bulkhead's question was answered when another three monsters appeared, each looking just like the first set.

"I guess Meltdown's been dabbling with clone army building," said Chip.

Matt twitched. "CLONE...BLOODY EXP CLONES!" he yelled and blasted the first two point blank with a burst of plasma.

The monsters were thrown back, but their clone replacements soon took their place. "Dis is not going to be easy," said Dune Runner.

"Splat em!" yelled Matt and jumped on the first one.

"Brothers," said Chloe, rolling her eyes.

"Me Grimlock smash bad bat thing," said Grimlock, pulling out his sword.

Chloe went wide eyed. "No, wait..." she said as the fire suppression system blasted Grimlock. The T-Rex bot roared and stumbled backwards, accidentally knocking over Bulkhead.

"This isn't going well," sighed Chloe. The clones appeared to be as confused.

"I'll take care of these mutants," said Optimus as he pulled out his axe.

The rest of Matt's gang also started shooting, if only to try and stop Matt from accidentally getting minced. One of the shark clones suddenly charge at Chloe, whipping at her with its tentacles. Chloe managed to jump back and fired a few shots into it. "Smegging...shark things!" she yelled, blasting it.

However, she ended up backing up into one of the bat clones that snatched her. The shark clone, seeing his prey was already taken, decided to go after Matt. Matt however was doing slightly better, if only cause most clones that tried to hit him ended up being, slashed, shot bitten and in one case, hit with another clone. Then the shark clone grabbed Matt from behind with his crab claw and then shoved him into its mouth. The shark seemed content for a second before it apparently burped up a large plasma ball before spitting a cross-eyed Matt out. "Eurgh...floss for God's sake," he said

However, more clones kept coming in. "I think Meltdown might have anticipated our eventual arrival," said Prowl.

"Gee, what gave you that idea?" said Bumblebee sarcastically.

"I think we might be in trouble," said Matt as he spotted even more trying to crowd in.

Meltdown, probably out of evilness had been displaying the fight down in the area for his...guests.

"I just love indoor theater, don't you?" said Meltdown.

Megan glared. "They'll just break out, your insurance'll skyrocket," she said, trying to wind Meltdown up.

"Not likely, I have complete control over each clone," said Meltdown, "They will only do what I command them to do." One said clone was thrown at the camera by Matt, just before four mantis mutant dog-piled on him. "As you can see, my clones, though not the shapeshifters I'd hope them to be, are more than a match for any machine or lesser organic," said Meltdown, "It's only a matter of time before those robots are reduced to scrap."

Lilo however was working on the lock to her cell. Stitch had shown her a few tricks for dealing with such problems and her experiment form's claws were quite good as a pick.

"You know, if you waste Matt and the others, you'll lose a lot of potential test subjects," said Sari.

"Not really," said Meltdown, "Adult humans aren't that useful for test subjects. In order for the shapeshifter formula to potentially work, the subject must be either in their pre-pubescent or adolescent stages, to be still developing and maturing."

Morph said, "But think of all the tech know-how they have."

Meltdown paused and considered it for a moment. He said, "I think Splicer would be able to provide me more than they can."

"They have their own spaceship," said Lilo, as her lock clicked open.

"Big deal, I have my own spaceship," said Splicer, "How do you think I got here?"

"It's bigger then Looney Tune's little shuttle," said Megan, pointing at Splicer.

"Don't push me, girl," said the symbiote, showing the six claws on his hand.

"Well, it's true. You did know his 'ship's' a short range shuttle...right?" said Megan.

"Is not!" snapped Splicer, "I got a lot of mileage out of that shuttle. Getting to here from the Empire homebase is not easy."

"Yeah...and it'll last about 15 seconds in combat. Matt owns a battlecruiser," said Megan. Technically this was a lie if applied to the Bladestorm which in Techo's opinion was more rust then ship.

Meltdown considered a minute before saying, "I'm a geneticist, girl. I don't care about loading up on space guns or cashing in on ones. The only thing remotely appealing about that is the possibility of collecting DNA from other planets."

"Planets with guns of their own...really big ones," said Megan, smirking as Splicer glared.

"I think I'd be more interested in the planets with less-advanced, or any, civilization. The species would prove very useful," said Meltdown.

"Fine, tell me, did Splicer tell you about DARKRIFT?" said Megan, grinning evilly.

"Dark what?" asked Meltdown.

"It's not that important," said Splicer, "I'll see what I can do about getting alien DNA you might want. But let's stick to the task at hand and start experimenting."

"He didn't tell you about the NSC's elite extermination squads who would definitely chase you for considering what you are planning to do?" said Megan, enjoying seeing Splicer squirm.

"If you think you can derail my train of thoughts, you're sadly mistaken," said Meltdown, "Don't think that buying yourself time would help. Your friends will never get here in time. Splicer, which do you think we should start with; the youngest girl or the boy?"

Gary's eyes glowed white and he said, "I'll kill you if you touch any of them, you monster." Stitch mouthed something that could not be heard from his prison but it was probably rude.

"Such nobility in the face of danger, how impressive," said Meltdown. He turned to Splicer and said, "Let's start with him first."

Megan yelled, "No! Gary!"

Just then, Lilo swung her cage open and blasted both Splicer and Meltdown's heads with her lasers. The two villains were temporarily incapacitated while they regenerated their heads. Meanwhile, Lilo had run to the other cages and started opening the locks.

Megan jumped out as soon as she was free and blasted Gary's lock with a negablast while Lilo smashed Stitch's prison. Splicer, however, had just regenerated his head. "Damn trog thing...HEY!" he yelled as he saw that they were loose.

Meltdown had also regenerated his head to see the prisoners escaping. "Get back here!" he yelled, shooting acid jets over their heads.

"Not a chance, you big dummy!" retorted Lilo, blasting Meltdown again.

The instant Meltdown had his mouth again, he shouted, "Splicer, get them!"

Splicer bared his teeth. "With pleasure," he said and ran after them. Splicer tore after the kids. He wasn't too concerned with injuring them, so long as they were still alive. And in his opinion there were so many definitions of 'still alive'.

Meanwhile, the fight between the Autobots and the monster clones wasn't going so well. Matt punched a clone and used it as a shield from an attack by another before throwing it at a bat mutant. "He's gotta be running out by now," he said

Bulkhead, however, was at the bottom of a pile of clones. "Could someone lend me a servo here?" he asked. Draco pulled a few loose to allow Bulkhead to get loose before having to dodge another of the mantis mutants.

"We aren't going to be able to look for the kids at this rate," said Techo.

"He's right," said Optimus as he batted off another shark mutant, "You humans go on and look for them. We'll deal with Meltdown's monsters."

Matt waved to Chloe and the others. "Let's go...come on," he called, before plasma blasting another mutant and changing to human.

One of the bat mutants was about to attack them when Snarl knocked it into a wall with his club. "I think they'll be fine. Let's go," said Matt.

The group ducked into a small corridor and heard a familiar voice yell "GET BACK HERE, YOU TROG!"

"Oh, don't tell me..." said Chloe. A couple of plasma bursts coming from down the corridor answered her forming question.

"Splicer," said the Lynches together.

Chris sighed. "That guy doesn't give up."

Just then, Sari ran around a corner and nearly ran into the gang. "Guys, I was hoping you'd get here. There's some crazy alien in a cyber suit chasing us."

Matt and Chloe turned the corner to see Splicer bearing down on them. Matt looked at Chloe and they both grinned. It wasn't every day you got such a good shot. They both ignited an electricity or plasma orb and threw them at Splicer. Splicer was briefly blown apart from the naval up, but he quickly regenerated. He glared at Matt and hissed, "Lyyyyyyynch..."

"I don't care if you followed her home, we're not keeping you," said Matt, sending a concussion blast into Splicer.

Splicer snarled and started blasting at Matt with his shoulder cannons. "I'm not holding back this time, Lynch," snarled the symbiote.

Matt raised a blast shield. "Haven't you heard? We graduated," he said.

Splicer turned to see a lack of Chloe before he heard a snarl. "Oh, you gotta be kidding m..." he started before Chloe literally stomped on him in dragon form.

Then Chloe grimaced and said, "Ew... I got black goo all over my foot."

"Say, isn't he supposed to be purple?" asked Techo.

"Yeah, he's definitely not looking too healthy right now," said Chris.

Techo pulled out a sonic cannon. "Aw, what a shame. Let's put him out of our misery," he said, aiming.

Splicer shrieked with and hit Techo all the way down to the end of the hallway with one whack from his cyber-tail. "I am not going down that easily!" shouted Splicer.

Then Sari pointed and asked, "Hey, what's that over there?"

Splicer smirked. "You must think I'm an absolute idiot. Matt tried that once. I'm not falling for it twice," he said before noticing the others were looking too.

What Splicer wasn't look at was a pile of what looked like grey ooze with organic tubes and barnacle-shaped parts that had a large purple eye in each of them. The creature was slowly crawling towards an unaware Splicer.

Matt pointed and screamed, "UNDEAD...UNDEAD!" in panic.

"I'm not falling for that old trick!" snapped Splicer as he raised up one arm to slash Matt with. However, one of the tubes on the oozing thing suddenly lashed out and attached itself to Splicer's arm. "What the heck?" he said.

"UNDEAAAD!" screamed Matt and blasted Splicer.

The blast took off the tube, but it also clipped a sizeable portion of Splicer's arm."Ow! Hey, watch where you're shooting!" snapped Splicer. However, before the wounded part of his arm could heal, one of the eye things jumped on and leeched onto the wounded area.

"RUN AWAY!" screamed Matt, probably the only sensible thing he had said all month.

The gang ran in the opposite direction. Splicer tried to follow after them, but the ooze creature kept latching more of itself onto Splicer's body. "Hey!" called Splicer, "Don't just leave me here! Get these things off of me! HELP!"

"Silence! You won't eat my brain!" yelled Matt, "I've seen Dawn of the Dead 4 times!"

Splicer sighed. "I REALLY hate that guy," he said as the rest of the creature approached.

The group ran until they were a considerable distance away. "Ok, what in Nullspace where those things?" asked Chloe.

"Space barnacles," said Sari, panting, "But I thought we got rid of them."

"You'll be surprised. I could say the same about Splicer," said Matt, who had calmed down a bit. "Lilo was right...space zombies," he said, twitching.

"They're not really zombies," said Sari, "They're Cybertronian parasites."

"Same thing in my book: if they want our brains, they're undead," said Matt, gibbering.

Chloe sighed and slapped him. "Great, but first, where's the creep who grabbed you? We have to shoot him."

"Uh, I'm not quite sure," said Sari, "I kinda lost track of where I was when that Splicer guy started chasing me."

Matt peered round the corner. Splicer had vanished for now, but so had the monster. He looked up to see another corner. "Your help needs work, Melty man. Come and do your own dirty work," he said, talking into the camera before making a very rude gesture

Meltdown glared at the image on his security camera and said, "I think this will require a personal touch." He passed by Morph, who was still trapped in his cage. "Don't go anywhere," said Meltdown.

Matt smirked before walking away from the camera. "I guarantee he's coming. I can be very annoying if I have too," he said.

Chloe glared. "Great...you're an idiot," she said scornfully.

Chris was not so worried, "How hard can this creep be?"

"Uh, pretty hard," said Sari, "He nearly offlined Bulkhead and Bumblebee and he could cow the Dinobots into working for him."

"Ok...so I might have been overconfident, but at least he won't come through the wall..." he said before hearing a hissing noise behind him. "Don't tell me," he said turning.

He watched as the wall literally melted apart, revealing Meltdown. "Now what was that about having to do my own dirty work?" said Meltdown.

"Wow, you're ugly," said Matt, his brain on autopilot, before being forced to dodge an acid blast.

"Yes, my accident did rob me of my good looks," said Meltdown, "But my powers more than make up for it."

Matt and his team shrugged "Fair enough," said Matt before they all opened fire with various weapons.

The blasts shot several holes through Meltdown, but they kept repairing themselves. Meltdown laughed and said, "Your weapons are no match against me. Nothing can hurt me anymore."

Matt shrugged. "Techo? Zap him," he said. Techo shot his sonic cannon into Meltdown. The blast only splattered Meltdown's front, causing his acid to fly everywhere. The group ducked. "Techo...no more sonic cannons," said Matt peering out.

Meltdown laughed louder and said, "Fools. I am more powerful than you can possibly imagine!"

"Yes, but can you dance?" challenged Matt.

Meltdown then started boogeying like Saturday Night Fever. He then jumped and landed, doing a perfect split. "Yes, I can," said Meltdown.

"Ooh, he's good," said Chris.

Matt looked up. "Did I mention? I never liked Saturday Night Fever," he said and shot the roof above Meltdown, bringing half a ton of rubble down on him.

"You know that's not going to hold him for long, right?" said Chloe.

"Yeah, but is why I'm gonna do this too," he said, putting a disc in front of the rubble. "Now we follow the holes," he said, walking through the hole Meltdown arrived through.

Not long after Matt and the others left, the rubble at the top of the pile started to steam and melted away. Meltdown climbed out and said, "I can't be stop that easily. Those are going to pay for..." He trailed off when he noticed the beeping disc Matt left behind.

Matt was listening as he heard the explosion and the various curses and threats. "You think he liked it?"

"Eh, probably as much as the next guy," said Chloe, "Now, we better find the others before-" Suddenly, Lilo, Stitch, Megan, and Gary ran around a corner and right into them.

"Wow, record time," said Chris.

"We just followed the explosions. You're usually there," said Lilo in her calm voice to Matt who glared.

"Now all we need to do is find Morph," said Matt, "He could be anywhere in the base by now."

"Not really," said Lilo, "He's in a custom-made inescapable cage in the slimeface's lab."

"What? How did melt-o-dufus trap Morph?" said Matt.

"Morph told him how," said Megan, "He even helped build the cage."

"Somehow...I'm not surprised," said Matt.

Sari glanced around and said, "I think I know where we are now. Meltdown's main lab should be over here."

Matt looked at the wall. Chloe noticed his look and said, "No wait, the door's over...oh for heaven's sake." as Matt blasted a hole in the wall.

Morph turned at the explosion. "Matt..." he said happily.

Matt glanced at the acid tank that Morph's container was suspended in. "Note to self: have one of these installed on the Bladestorm."

Techo went to the controls. "Should be easy...where's Weirdwolfy?" he asked, as he started to hack into the system.

"Meltdown...sent him into hyperspace," said Megan sadly.

Techo was silent for a minute. "Ok..." he said after a minute before working with the controls some more.

"Personally, I'm glad he didn't wreck my transwarp drive while doing that," said a voice. They turned to see Blackarachnia in her spider mode putting several canisters into a silk sack.

"Gah...how did you...where are the others, you overgrown bug?" said Matt.

"Still fighting those clones," said Blackarachnia, "Meltdown's got them by the dozen."

"Um, who's the giant talking spider?" asked Gary.

"Meet Blackarachnia, intergalactic hussie," said Chloe.

Blackarachnia hissed and said, "Don't try my patience. I'm just here to get what's mine."

"Why would an alien spider want with all that tech?" asked Megan.

Blackarachnia shifted to robot mode and said, "Because she doesn't want to be an alien spider anymore."

Lilo said, "Wow...that's the coolest alien robot I've seen yet. It's just like 'Revenge of the Killer Cyber-Spiders 3'."

Blackarachnia looked taken aback. "You...don't think I'm freaky or scary?" she asked.

"Believe me, she's seen weirder...before she even joined our crew. Note exhibit A," said Matt, pointing to Stitch.

Stitch was sticking his tongue up his nose and sucking on the delicious goodies inside. He pulled his tongue back into his mouth and said, "Ooh, ah, hiiii..."

Blackarachnia's expression could be roughly translated as 'what the hell?'. "Yeah, it gets everyone like that the first time," said Matt, leaning on Blackarachnia's ankle.

"So, what are in these canisters anyways," asked Techo.

"Nanites based on the composition of protoforms," said Blackarachnia, "You could say they're the Cybertronian equivalent to stem cells."

"It's half empty," said Techo, looking at the canister.

Chris sighed and said, "Who do we know who's drink anything...apart from Morph?"

"Weirdwolf didn't drink it," said Megan, "Meltdown kicked him into it before he banished him."

Matt sighed. "Blackarachnia, what would happen if an organic person got covered in them then warped through hyperspace where the laws of time and space are optional?" he said, dreading the answer.

Blackarachina thought for a moment and said, "Well, that's basically how I made Wasp into Waspinator, sent through a transwarp pod with some wasp DNA."

"We're screwed," said Matt simply. Just then, the door got knocked off its hinges and Colossus walked in, back to his enormous muscular size. "Yep, we're definitely screwed," said Matt. Matt and the group backed up. "It could be worse..." he said just as several mutants appeared behind colossus.

Chloe glared and yelled, "How many times? NEVER SAY THAT!"

Then the door opened and Meltdown came in, his suit singed from the land mine Matt left behind. "Ah, we're all back in the lab," said Meltdown, "And look, you brought along an old friend."

Blackarachnia glared at Meltdown and said, "I'm not sticking around. I'm just here to get what's mine."

"Oh...Melty-brain...did you like my present?" said Matt. He was gonna die anyway...so he was taking Meltdown's sanity with him.

"I'm sure I enjoyed it as much you will enjoy yours," said Meltdown, snapping his fingers and making the mutants step forward.

They were about to attack when they all heard something screaming in agony. Both groups looked to the side in time for something to stagger into view. It looked like it had stepped straight out of a Resident Evil game and naturally Matt's fragile grip was first to go. "UNDEAD!" he yelled and was knocked out by Chloe (who had by now had enough)

The creature, however, was alive, if you can call it that. Splicer was half covered with the grey ooze and organic veins of the space barnacles and it was very obvious that they were causing him great pain. "KILL ME!" he screamed, "MAKE IT STOP! I CAN'T STAND THE PAIN!"

"Undead…" gibbered Matt from ground level.

Chloe however said, "Ok...what the hell is THAT on Splicer? That is not a barnacle."

"Those must be the mutant barnacles that tried to take over Bumblebee and Prowl," said Sari, "I thought we torched them, but I guess they must have been swept down the river and washed up on Dinobot Island."

"Oh goody, Matt, they're not undead," she said, pulling her brother to his feet. Splicer's eyes however unfocussed and he snarled before looking between Sari and Blackarachnia

"Uh, I don't think we'd want to touch him," said Sari backing up. She was backing towards the wall when she noticed a blue glow coming from behind some boxes in a corner.

Techo looked down at his wrist computer when began beeping. "Oh great...not again..." he said. His wristcomp, indicating an incoming jump point.

Sari went over to corner and reached behind the boxes. She felt something smooth and pulled out a crystal shard. "An Allspark fragment? How'd it get here?" asked Sari, "It must have happened when Blackarachnia moved into his lab or something."

Sari turned and saw that when Splicer was in front of the crystal, it glowed brighter. "Hmm, I wonder..." said Sari. She clutched the crystal tightly and felt its energy flow through her. Then she felt the fingers on her other hand split apart and joined to form a prong that was very similar to her Allspark Key. "Hey guys, I've got an idea," said Sari.

Matt jumped back to avoid being flattened by Splicer and yelled, "Fantastic, go for it! I don't care what it is."

Sari ran over to in front of Splicer. The symbiote roared and prepared to claw her to pieces. "Splicer, this may feel weird, but I think you'll feel better afterwards," said Sari. She moved her reconfigured hand towards Splicer's chest. To everyone's surprise, the green orb in the middle slid aside to reveal an ignition key-like slot. Sari placed her prong inside the slot and was then knocked backwards by the burst of blue light that surrounded Splicer. The others stopped to see what would happen, even Meltdown and his minions and stopped.

As Splicer began to glow brighter, his armor and the space barnacles were absorbed into his body. His skin hardened into black and shiny armored plates. His feet extended until they became digigrade, his arms grew longer as the six fingers became longer and sharper. The tail that was on his back reappeared at the base of his back and grew long as spines appeared down it and his back. Then purple eyes like the space barnacles appeared on his chest, shoulders, hips, base of his tail, shoulder blades, thighs, and forearms. Purple circuit lines then crisscrossed all over his body as a new pair of cannons emerged from his back. Finally, his head lengthened as it was encased into a new exoskeleton with a visor for eyes. The end result was a creature like a xenomorph only with cannons on its back and covered with purple eyes and circuit lines.

"Ok...Splicer with bigger guns," said Matt, igniting a plasma orb. Meltdown looked like Christmas had arrived early however.

The reformatted Splicer looked around, making soft growling sounds. "If we're lucky, he probably has no mind left," whispered Chris.

"Then that'd make him just a wild animal, like a real xenomorph," whispered Techo. Chris gulped. Xenomorphs were right at the top 10 Class Z lifeforms, right after demons, zombies, and NegaMorph with a migraine.

Then the new Splicer spoke, "The pain, the madness, it's gone. It's all gone! I've been healed!"

"Um, good for you, Splicer?" said Matt.

'Splicer' looked at Matt and said, "Splicer was a creature of madness and instability. I am neither of those. I am...Xenobyte! Now as for you, I shall, I shall..." Xenobyte paused and said, "Um, what should I be feeling right now?"

"Erm...he punched you," said Matt, pointing at Colossus, dodging the question.

"No, he didn't," said Xenobyte, "You were the one that mutilated my mind and body. Shouldn't that mean I should be angry at you...uh, what was your name again?"

"Erm...Matthew is my name...but I prefer Matt...erm...do you want to be angry at me?" said Matt, in the tone of someone poking the bruise to see when it would hurt.

"Uh, I should, but, my mind is so clear now, I don't seem to feel much," said Xenobyte, thoroughly confused.

"If I may make a suggestion," said Meltdown, "How about you test your new powers on your old enemies?"

"Yeah...er...them," said Matt, pointing at Meltdown,

"No, he's your enemies, get them," said Meltdown.

"No, I said it first, get him," said Matt.

"You can't just order him to attack me."

"You think I can't?"

"You're his archenemy!"

"Says who?"

Xenobyte looked at Chloe and asked, "Uh, does this happen often?"

Chloe sighed. "You'd be surprised. Once it was you in Meltdown's place. That was a weird day. It's your choice, good or evil, though I admit it's hard to tell sometimes," she said as Matt tried to shut Meltdown up by throwing a rock in his mouth.

Xenobyte scratched his head and said, "I think I'll go with what I know. So..." He turned his cannons on Chloe and fired.

Chloe ended up upside down against the wall. "Not...a good move...guess not all of your memories are left."

Xenobyte had aimed his blaster at Chloe when he said "Pardon?" before hearing Meltdown calling out a warning before a roar was heard and a scaly paw grabbed the back of his head. Xenobyte gulped as he was turned slowly to be faceplate to snout with Matt's dragon form. "Oh no...now I remember...this is gonna hurt..." he said before Matt punched him in the face and sent him across the room to land behind Meltdown.

Xenobyte groaned before falling and landing on top of a laser turret. However, instead of just thudding against it, Xenobyte became a black and purple slime that slid all over the turret. The slime bonded to the laser turret and made it a lot more hi-tech looking. With a clicking sound, the turret transformed into a scorpion-like robot. "Ok...that's new..." he said before turning his new body to aim at Matt. Meltdown, however, was trying to blast the others.

Meanwhile, Colossus Rhodes and the mutants decided to stop staring and start attacking. Chloe got up in time to see Colossus in front of her. "Oh please," she said, glaring at him.

"Don't think I'm gonna hold back because you're a lady," said Colossus as he prepared to punch her.

Chloe sighed and grabbed his wrist. "Have a nice day," she said and sent an electrical charge down her arm.

Colossus roared with pain before punching her with his other arm. Surprisingly, his electrodes hadn't shorted out. "I'm not falling for that twice," said Colossus, "Got some rubber gloves over them. You ain't shockin' them again."

Chloe glared and was about to transform to dragon before looking at the present Matt had gotten her a few weeks ago. "Have you ever seen a Noisy Cricket?" she asked, aiming a small pistol at Colossus.

Colossus looked down at the puny gun and laughed. "I ain't scared of a little toy gun," he said.

Chloe shrugged. "Size isn't everything...bye-bye," she said and squeezed the trigger. The gun made a clicking noise before it shot some kind of dart at Colossus...that exploded. Colossus was thrown backwards into a wall with a loud boom. "Big things come in small packages," said Chloe.

Chloe walked up and poked Colossus, who had shrunken back down. The Noisy Cricket blaster had apparently crashed whatever system his electrodes ran off. "Remind me to never get on your bad side when you have that thing with you," said Chris.

"Noted," said Chloe, aiming a blast at one of the mutants.

Blackarachnia, however, was backing towards the door. She wasn't their ally, she just came to get her equipment. But then a scream caught her audio sensors. She looked to see Lilo being grabbed by the tentacles of a shark mutant and lifted towards her mouth.

"Ok, two choices," said Blackarachnia to herself, "One, bail out of her like any self-respecting spider. Or two, play Little Miss Hero like some sort of pathetic warm-blood." The shark mutant opened its mouth wide to bite Lilo's head off. Blackarachnia sighed to herself and said, "Sometimes I disgust myself." She shot a line of webbing at Lilo and pulled her out of the mutant's grip, leaving it to bite on its own tentacle.

The shark's eyes crossed before it yelped. It didn't yelp long as Matt blasted it in the face however. Lilo looked at Blackarachnia. "Thanks," she said cheerfully.

"What can I say, you're likeable," said Blackarachnia, "But don't tell anyone I did it willingly. I only did it because of that compliment."

"Deal," said Lilo.

A mutant was sent flying past them a cry of 'meega nala queesta' following it. Stitch was clearly enjoying himself...which was more than could be said for his opponents. Several of them were starting to turn tail. "Come back, you cowards!" yelled Meltdown, "We still have them on the ropes!"

The rest of the group surrounded him and Xenobyte. "I say we see what happens if you use a tin opener on Splicer mk 2," said Matt, evilly.

Stitch added, 'Ih'.

Xenobyte just snarled and started shooting a barrage of lasers out of his various eyes. The group were forced to dodge again till Lilo just made the lasers stop dead. Matt peered out. "EXP has its uses," he said with a smirk to Stitch.

"Which is why I learn to adapt," said Xenobyte. The cannons on his back extended and changed form until he had a pair of railguns pointing at the gang.

Suddenly, a blue portal opened up in the air. "What in the world?" said Meltdown. Suddenly, there was a loud roaring and a purple and black dragon leapt out of the portal. It landed right on top of Meltdown and growled at him. This dragon had a slight resemblance to an Avalarian dragon, only its forelegs were longer and skinnier than its hind legs and it had two tails instead of one.

"Oh great...what now?" said Matt, looking at the newcomer.

"Ugh, get off of me, you prehistoric throwback!" yelled Meltdown. The dragon didn't like this comment apparently and its muzzle opened wide before breathed out a cloud of green gas at Meltdown. Meltdown staggered back as the breath seemed to burn. "Gyah...what was that? Xenobyte, remove this pest," he said.

Xenobyte hissed and whacked the dragon with his tail. The dragon got back up and turned to Splicer. He opened his mouth and breathed at Xenobyte. There was no gas this time, but the breath was as powerful as a hurricane-force wind.

Matt, Stitch and Lilo followed Xenobyte's flight across the room...and out of it, despite the lack, up until he hit, of a doorway. "Wow...reminds me of that time we found Phoon's clone," said Matt.

Xenobyte shook his head and said, "Erm, does this call for a retreat?"

Meltdown looked around and saw that he was outnumbered, the rest of the mutants had all fled. "For now," he said, "Bring Rhodes. We'll need him later."

Matt glared. "Oh no you don't melty man," he yelled, sending a plasma blast at Meltdown's feet, knocking him over. However Meltdown simply flowed out his suit and out the wall hole. "Hey...cheat!" called Matt.

Xenobyte leaped over to Rhodes and grabbed him. "We'll be back," he said before leaping out the door.

"Please give us a week off first," called Matt.

"Uh, sure, ok..." said Xenobyte hesitatingly. He shook his head in confusion before running off.

"I don't think his brain's at full processing power," said Techo.

"Don't ruin the moment. I recorded that for blackmail," said Matt, smiling aimlessly.

Just then, the Autobots, Dune Runner, and the experiments came in. "Boy, that was a real workout," said Draco.

"Yeah," said Dune Runner, "I never would have thought those mutants would put up such a nasty fight."

Matt turned to see them. "Ah...hi...you missed the party," he said.

"So we did," said Chip, glancing around at all the battle damage. Then he noticed the dragon. "Who or what is that?" he asked.

"Not a clue," said Matt, looking like he was about 5 minutes from losing it, "Why not ask him?"

"Actually, I think I may already know," said Megan. She approached the dragon slowly. The dragon did nothing but look at her. It seemed perplexed about something and was making odd growling sounds in his throat. Megan placed her hand on the dragon's neck and said, "It's alright, boy, you can let it out."

The mercs' mouths fell open. "Weirdwolf?" said Chloe finally.

The dragon hissed and suddenly, its skin began to crawl. The two tails on its body suddenly flipped out to form digigrade legs as its hind legs combined to form a wolf's tail before its waist spun around. Then the dragon's head and neck split sideways and swung down to clip onto its front legs. The halves of the dragon's head split in two again and swung around the paws to form two thumbs on each hand. Then a wolf's head sprung up where the dragon's head was. The final form looked a lot like a werewolf, only with scales and spikes on its purple and black body, batlike wings on its back, and two thumbs on each hand.

Matt said, "Well...that completes the weirdest day of my current week."

Bumblebee said, "Don't you mean, your life?"

Matt shook his head and said, "No..." before bursting into hysterical tears as he snapped.

Prowl observed Weirdwolf's werewolf mode with interest. "He's pure organic," he said.

"Heh, a Transformer that changes from beast to beast," said Bumblebee, "Oh boy, now I've seen everything."

"Spend a day in my shoes..." said Matt, gloomily

"So, can you speak now?" asked Megan.

"Speak, I can," said Weirdwolf in a slightly feral-sounding voice, "For long time, I have wanted to."

"Nope, NOW is the weirdest moment of my current week," said Matt before wandering off to have a nice quiet nervous breakdown somewhere.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine so long as nothing irritates him for a while," said Chloe. There was a cry of 'WHY ME?' from the next room. Chloe added, "Hopefully..."

"Hey, where's Lilo?" asked Dune Runner.

"She's right here," said Blackarachnia, putting Lilo down on the floor.

"She saved me from that sea monster thing," said Lilo.

"I only did it because she said I was cool," said Blackarachnia quickly.

Chloe smirked. "Of course you did," she said, grinning evilly.

Blackarachnia glared down at her and said, "How about I hang you upside down in a cocoon for a week?"

Chloe glared, "Do it and I'll overload every CPU in that brain of yours."

Chris said weakly, "Ladies...please."

A loud tapping interrupted the looming catfight. "Hey, is anybody gonna let me out of here?" called Morph from inside his cage.

Techo looked up. "You know, we could leave him there for a few days, peace and quiet," he suggested to Draco

"It's not like he needs to eat or breathe," agreed Draco.

The two turned to see Chip and Contrinus glaring. "Then again, we can't leave a fellow teammate locked up," said Techo, smiling weakly. He aimed his gun and shot a hole in Morph's container.

Morph backed up as the acid started to leak in. "Guys, make it stop, make it stop," he squealed.

"What's the big deal?" said Techo, "You'll just grow back."

"Actually, acid cancels out Morph's regeneration power," said Chip, "It messes up his DNA enough so he can't heal from acid very quickly and could potentially kill him if he were completely exposed to it."

Techo pulled out a chem from his wristcomp's buffer and fired into the acid. "Alkali, used for xeno acid, should do the trick. Can't remember what the side effect was though..." he said before ducking as the acid exploded. "Oh...was that," he said weakly.

Everyone scattered to avoid being hit, not wanting to find out if it was still corrosive or not. Techo answered the question. The acid had turned into a very sticky goo, answering what he made his goo grenades from. However, being closest to the tank, he got the full force of the explosion and was currently coated from head to foot in sticky slime. "I shoulda left him in the pod," said Techo, gloomily, unable to move.

"Well, I think we should head back to the others," said Optimus, "I'm sure Jumba, Pleakley, and Ratchet could use some help with Waspinator."

"Where is Morph?" said Chris before seeing that Morph had ended up glued to Techo.

"Well, at least we can have a little 'bonding time'," said Morph before giggling.

Techo glared. "Get off me, YOU TWERP!" yelled Techo, trying to push the blob off. Unfortunately, the goo was as affective as goo grenades and Morph soon proved nearly-impossible to remove. Techo glared at the grinning Morph, tied him to a girder and tried to pull away from him.

"This could be fun to watch," said Draco.

There was the inevitable time when the stretching became too much and Techo shot back into Morph. The group winced as the impact actually dented the girder at nearly a 90 degree angle. Techo groaned and tried to walk away, only to find he was now stuck to the girder as well. "I hate you," he said coldly to Morph.

"Ah, you're just saying that," said Morph. Techo settled for shooting him in the head, only for him to regenerate.

"Say Matt!" called Contrinus, "Did you bring any solvents for goo grenades with you?"

Matt, who had wandered back in at the yelling said, "Yeah...I think they're all on the plane though."

Dune Runner could easily tell Techo's face turning dark red under the goo and said, "Ok, I t'ink it's time to take de kids back to the cave."

Matt shrugged and blasted both ends of the girder. "Ok...someone carry the twins," he said.

Techo said, "Just you wait..."

A little while later, the group were back at Blackarachnia's cave. Techo and Morph had been propped in the corner, out of the way. Wasp still looked a bit angry. "Guys, meet Waspinator, local nutcase," said Matt.

Waspinator buzzed angrily and said, "Wazpinator will get revenge, Waspinator dezerves it..."

Lilo ran up to him. "Wow...a real life wasp mummy. I told you they were real, Matt," she said.

"Uh, he's not really a mummy, he's a deranged revenge-bent Cybertronian," said Matt.

Waspinator however was a bit confused. "What wazp mummy?" he asked

"He's still really cool though," said Lilo.

"Waspinator mega-cool, thanks to ex-friend," said Waspinator, glaring at Blackarachnia.

"You look like the time that bee got into Jumba's teleporter," said Matt.

"You cannot blame me for pollinating insect buzzing when not wanted," said Jumba, "And mess was cleaned up eventually."

Matt glared. "It tried to eat me."

"Would probably have helped if one-eye noodle had not been spraying you with scented contamination spray," said Jumba.

"I thought that he would like 'Marigold and Peaches'," said Pleakley.

"He did...for lunch," said Matt. Waspinator just stared. Many people were speechless when hearing of some of Jumba's little 'accidents'.

Scorponok tried to walk over to them. "I'm just glad than none of you are- ARGH!" he said and grabbed his wounded arm.

"What have I told you about moving around?" snapped Ratchet.

Scorponok said "I am perfectly...urgh..." he said grabbing his arm again.

"I'm the doctor and I say you need to lie down and let that arm heal," said Ratchet.

Scorponok said, "I am perfectly fine," in a dangerously level voice.

Techo however piped up. "No, you're not. Your robot half is fine, but your organic components are still on the fritz. If they go, so do you. The doctor knows what's best."

Scorponok growled and said, "Fine."

"Jumba has been examining techno-organic systems," said Jumba, 'Is very intriguing. I believe I can create formula to increase healing factor." The mercs and experiments all stopped in horror at this. Jumba's plans had a habit of having...bugs in the first versions.

"Er, maybe I should look at that," said Blackarachnia, "I know more about techno-organics than any of you."

"I agree, we don't want another bee," said Matt and was glared at by Jumba.

"There's no need to go through extra work for me," said Scorponok.

"You took that sting for me, it's the least I could do," said Blackarachnia.

Optimus smiled slightly and said, "You seem more willing to help others now, Blackarachnia."

"It's probably this jungle," said Blackarachnia, "The heat and humidity are probably damaging my processor."

"Taste of her own medicine," muttered Matt to Chip.

"Blackarachnia, I know you may have trouble trusting us, but we would hope that we might stay for a while, so Scorponok could heal and that we can find Meltdown and Xenobyte," said Optimus.

Blackarachnia looked at Optimus coldly. "...and haul me back to the Cybertronian stockade when you're done?"

"I know I'm not high on your list of close friends," said Optimus, "But I wish to make amends, to make up for all those stellar cycles. I know it might not seem like much, but I think I have something you want." He reached into his storage compartment and pulled out a black and gold helmet with a red hourglass symbol on the forehead. "I found it after the explosion. Until today, I thought it was the only part of you left."

Blackarachnia took the helmet and looked at it. Her reminiscence was spoiled slightly when Matt said "Leave the dark side, their muffins are a lie-" before Chloe gagged him.

Blackarachnia was quiet for a while before she put her helmet back on. It covered up all of her face except for her mouth and her four eyes. "It'll probably be a long time before I can trust you Autobots again," she said, "But I think this may be a start."

Waspinator ruined the quietness by yelling, "Wazpinator never forgive! Wazpinator slag you all!"

"Er, incidentally, we think wasp robot will have better chance of mental recovery if left in care of little girl," said Jumba.

"Lilo does have a talent at turning people around," said Pleakley.

"With a guard," interrupted Matt, in a 'no argument' voice.

Lilo looked at Waspinator and said, "Well, he's a lot bigger than any of the experiments, but he is pretty cool. I could give it a try."

"I am not letting Lilo out of my sight while she is turning wasp boy to the light side. I'm camping right here," Matt said.

Bumblebee shuddered. "Oh, don't mention camping. I haven't gotten over the last time yet."

* * *

Finally here's another chapter. I'm sorry it took so long to update this one. There are a couple of reasons for the big gap between updates. First off, I decided I need some time to figure out my stories were gonna go for the future, plan them out in advance. Another is that I felt taxxed from all the schoolwork I had to do so I thought I'd take the summer off. But the main reason I haven't updated lately... was because I was lazy and never got around to it. There, I said it.

Anywho, you can pick out several references in this chapter. Of course, there's the name of the reservation, that's pretty much self-explanitory. Weirdwolf's little incident with Bulkhead is based off what happened to Ironhide in the first live-action Transformers movie. The little part with Morph revealing his inescapable prison's based off an episode of Freakazoid, as some of you would know. The space barnacles are from the episode "Nature Calls", not sure if they actually survived that one or not. But the biggest thing is Weirdwolf's transformation. Of course, his name and speech pattern harken back to the Headmaster from the original series. And the dragon/wolf part's a nod to Noble/Savage from Beast Wars. His werewolf mode's also based off of Fangry.

Anyways, this chapter may have taken a long time to put up, but the rest will be coming along quite rapidly. So keep an eye out for the next chapter which ought to be before the middle of next week.


	10. Web of Deception

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 10: Web of Deception**

The deepest part of the Congo is an ideal place if you wanted to get away from crowded civilization and embrace raw nature. Of course, being in the company of giant robots from another planet spoils the effect a bit. But as always, the spirit of the outdoorsman prevails...sometimes.

Chloe woke up from a doze as a blast of plasma shot over her head and a singed Insect flew away with a 'bleh' noice. Matt was clearly the culprit. "HAHAHAHA...TRY AND BITE ME NOW!" he yelled, laughing evilly.

"You know, there is something called 'bug spray'," said Chloe.

"Morph ate it," said Matt, his eye twitching violently.

"Not surprising," said Chloe, "Just try to deal with it the best that you can."

"Oh yeah. That's easy for the magnificent living bug zapper," said Matt, sarcastically.

"Well, go for a swim or something," said Chloe before a large amount of electrical sparks went off near her leg, "Whoa, that was a big one."

Matt got a twitch. "I'll give you a swim..." he said grinning, manically.

Jumba was getting some fresh water when he heard a buzzing noise and footsteps approaching. "Don't you dare, you bug-addled nutbaAAAARGH!" The 'ARGH' coincided with Chloe being thrown into the river by a badly-electrocuted Matt who then fell over as his electrocution caught up with him.

"Hmm, that reminds Jumba, must set up bug zapper to prevent specimens from becoming contaminated," said Jumba.

Pleakley ran by, screaming. Jumba was confused for a minute before a cloud of mosquitoes flew by in close pursuit. "Ah...I told Pleakley to hide Earth canned bug repellant from 6-3-0," he said. "It is good thing that Jumba has remembered economy-sized flypaper," said Jumba, pulling a piece of flypaper large enough to catch a person out of his bag.

The screaming Pleakley ran back the other way and hit the fly paper, causing it to spin around both him and Jumba. "Oh...hi, Jumba...sleep well?" he asked.

"Pleakley, you have spoiled perfectly good flypaper," said Jumba.

Just then the swarm caught up with them. "Ah! Why am I so tasty to mosquitoes?" cried Pleakley.

"Jumba would like to study that, but now is time for running and screaming." The two of them ran off as the mosquitoes pursued them.

Meanwhile, Waspinator was having his first 'good' lesson with Lilo and Stitch. Chris and Techo were also present with EMP arc rifles.

"Ok, let's start with something easy: emotional expression," said Lilo, "How do you feel?"

"WAZPINATOR WILL DESTROY YOU...ow," yelled Waspinator before Techo zapped him. "No...bad organic robo-mutant," he said, zapping him again

"Ok, hostile right now," said Lilo, "Uh, I know, let's try dream analysis. Can you tell me what your dreams have been like lately?"

"Dreamed of crushing Wazpinator's enemiez," said Waspinator before Techo zapped him again.

"No...destruction bad," he said.

"Ok, how about word association?" said Lilo, "I'll say a word, you tell the word that comes to your mind. Rock?"

"CRUSH!" yelled Waspinator.

"Er, ball?"

"SMASH!" yelled Waspinator before Chris made a tree branch fall on Waspinator's head with a shot.

"Ok, what else?" said Lilo.

Stitch had started to lose interest at this point and was paying more attention to the insects flying around. He then noticed a particular insect and said, "Bumblebee."

"CRUSH BUMBLEBOT!" yelled Waspinator. Waspinator struggled again to break his bonds, causing Chris and Techo to blast him at the same time. "Beah...beee's," gibbered Waspinator as the two arc blasts scrambled his memory circuits.

"This may take a while," said Lilo.

Meanwhile, Scorponok had improved slightly from his poisoning and was no longer immobilized.

However, Ratchet kept him indoors (well, in the caves) to prevent his wound from getting infected by microscopic organisms on this planet that humans refer to as 'germs'.

Scorponok was not too happy about this. "For Allspark's sake, I'm fine," he said.

"No doing," said Ratchet, "I don't know how susceptible technorganics like you are to organic diseases, but I'm not allowing my patients to become test subjects that could endanger their sparks. Now you can stay in the caves consciously or you can sleep in there." His EMP generator popped out of his arm to prove his point.

Scorponok rolled his optics in boredom then sat down.

"Don't be so grumpy," said Blackarachnia, "You'll be out and about in no time."

"Well," said Scorponok, "It's not all that comfortable in this cave."

"Hey, you're not alone here," said Blackarachnia, "I'd like to get outside too, if that annoying female merc would let me out. I don't know how these humans could be attracted to such things."

Ratchet, without looking up, said absently, "You and that merc could almost be twin protoforms from how you both act."

Blackarachnia glared at Ratchet and said, "Those are fighting words among Decepticons."

"In case you didn't notice, you're not exactly on the Decepticon team," said Ratchet smugly.

"Hey! Just because I haven't been with Megatron's team since I've come to Earth, and most bots consider me a freak, and the only Decepticon around wants to squash me..." Blackarachina's voice petered off in a sulky tone.

There was a screaming noise followed by a thunderclap. "THROW ME IN THE RIVER, WILL YOU?" yelled Chloe's voice. A minute later, a badly-charred Matt flew into the cave and hit the wall hard enough to be stuck to the wall.

A dripping-wet Chloe walked in afterwards. "Ugh, why am I always surrounded by morons?" said Chloe, "If it isn't their innuendos, it's their childish pranks." She paused in confusion when Ratchet and Scorponok suddenly cracked up.

She and Blackarachnia both sighed and said, "Males..." before looking at each other before ignoring the other.

Scorponok stopped laughing for a moment and said, "You're right, Ratchet. They could be twins."

Chloe and Blackarachnia both snarled at Scorponok. "Just an observation," he squeaked.

Matt finally came off the wall and landed with a 'plop' noise. "Someones...got a temperrrr…" he rasped.

"I do not!" snapped Chloe and Blackarachnia at the same time. They turned towards each other and said, "Quit copying me! Quit copying you? You're copying me!"

Matt got up unsteadily. "Why do I hear two Chloes?" he said before a webbing blast and a lightning bolt hit him at the same time.

"Flibble worm mongoose," he gibbered before falling backwards.

"I need some air," said Blackarachnia, walking towards the entrance of the cave.

Chloe grabbed Matt's foot and said "...And I have to drag Matt to Lao and Jumba for some healing." before dragging Matt along the bumpy ground.

"Perhaps Cybertronians and humans aren't that different," observed Scorponok.

Ratchet winced as Matt's head bounced off several rocks on the way out, his 'ow's' being heard disappearing into the distance. "You might be right there," he said.

Meanwhile, Jumba and Pleakley had come back in from their 'morning exercise', covered in mosquito bites. Chloe dropped her brother at Jumba's feet. Jumba sighed "I vas wondering ven you vould catch him."

"He just need a little treatment for electrical burns," said Chloe sweetly.

Jumba looked at Matt. "Ah...and apparently major concussion to head."

Chloe said dismissively, "Oh, that too."

"Spider-womaaaaan..." said Matt in a dazed voice.

Chloe 'accidentally' stepped on her brother as she walked by.

"Owie..." moaned Matt.

Jumba left Lynch in the care of Lt Lao and went to check in on Lilo and Stitch. Waspinator's therapy had apparently not gone well. Several scorch marks were on the walls and ceilings. "What happened in here?" asked Jumba.

"He got his little arms loose," said Chris, "The ones that can zap."

Techo nodded. "First time I was glad the spiderbots hitched a ride..." he said, pointing to where the spiderbots had tied the zapper arms together.

"You know, ve could alvays do rehabilitating Jumba's vay," said Jumba.

Waspinator glared under the gag of riot glue that the spiderbots had shot over his mouth. Chris had been hit by one of the zaps. "Fine...go for it," he said evilly.

"Jumba, you know your 'evil-iminator' doesn't work that well," said Lilo.

"Jumba could alvays test it on giant robot," said Jumba.

Techo peered up from his cover with Stitch. "Wasn't that the machine that exploded when it was last tested?" he asked.

"Eh, 2-1-4 only got singed," said Jumba.

"Fine...go for it," said Techo. He had been hit twice.

"Jumba, no," said Lilo.

"You're outvoted," said Techo and yelped as Lilo fired a laser at him.

"Lilo has a point," said Pleakley, walking in, "There's no need to resort to hazardous equipment, not when simple reasoning will work."

Chris said, "Does Pleakley's vote count?"

"Of course I count as a vote, and my vote is-" Pleakley stopped when he heard a familiar buzzing sound. "Oh, not again," said Pleakley before he started running away from the mosquito swarm.

The others watched him run off and Jumba said, "I think Pleakley should be counting as abstaining."

Chris nodded, "Ok...so what would you do to wasp boy over there?"

"Some minor rearrangement of processor circuits should restore most of cognitive senses," said Jumba.

"Brain surgery?" said Techo. Suddenly they understood Lilo's objection. I mean, would you want Jumba messing with your brain?

"Would technically be considered such, yes," said Jumba as he put on some white rubber gloves.

"Ok...changing my vote," said Techo in a nervous voice.

"Too late, Jumba already starting," said Jumba.

Chris gulped. "Does anyone get the feeling we're gonna really regret this?"

After Matt's brain was put back in order, as close or it'll ever get, he and Chloe decided to go for a short walk through the jungle. Matt was sticking close to Chloe in hopes that her presence will keep the insects away.

"Look...I'm sorry about throwing you in the river," Matt was saying as they walked along.

"It was totally unwarranted," huffed Chloe.

"I had one of my little moments...smegging bugs," said Matt

"Can't you fry them with your powers?" said Chloe.

"Not without burning down the jungle," said Matt

Chloe sighed and then said, "By the way, where are Megan, Gary, and Sari?"

Matt shrugged. "Probably having a better time dealing with those insects than I am," he said.

Chloe suddenly stopped. "Hey...listen," she said. Matt went silent to hear several voices near some bushes further along the path they were on.

Chloe began to walk towards them when Matt said "Hey...I don't think we should..." Chloe just shook him off and barged into the bushes.

Chloe parted the bushes and looked through. She did not find the kids. What she did find was a tribe of mandrills who had been chattering away at each other. However, they had now stopped and were now staring at Chloe. There was a long silence before Chloe said, "Uh oh." The mandrills stared at her a little longer before one of them muttered something and they all charged her. (basically 'lets eat her')

Chloe immediately started running in the opposite direction while yelling, "RUN AWAY!"

Matt stepped aside as his sister and her pursuers charged by. "Wildlife gets weirder every year," he muttered before turning to see more mandrills. "Oh bugger," he said

It should be noted that mandrills are very persistent when they chase something. Once they start, they won't stop until either they've got their quarry or they've ran too far.

Matt and Chloe were finding this out quite well as the mandrills had not given up after 15 minutes. "I hate the jungle!" yelled Matt, after the 16th minute

Unfortunately, they took a wrong turn not long after that and found themselves against a rock wall on three sides.

"So this is how we die...eaten by mandrills," said Matt in an overly dramatic voice.

"Oh come on," said Chloe, "We've fought evil dragons before. I think we can handle a couple of monkeys."

"So? That just means they're harder to hit." said Matt. The mandrills however had settled down to watch the argument.

"Just because you're too chicken to fight primates doesn't mean I'm going to lie down and die," said Chloe.

"Hah...coming from the dragoness who went mental cause we compared you to Blackarachnia," retorted Matt. The mandrills were now moving their heads back and forth between the siblings like tennis spectators

"I am nothing like that overgrown arachnid," said Chloe.

"Yeah, of course not," said Matt sarcastically, "You obviously have nothing in common with an overbearing and manipulative hybrid."

"Why you little..." began Chloe and began to strange Matt.

The mandrills decided to retreat to a safer distance to watch. There are animals that could be hunt down for food, there are invaders to territory, and there are some whom would be better be watched fighting another than to actually fight them.

That and it was quite entertaining.

Meanwhile, Megan, Gary, and Sari had found a watering hole that didn't have any crocodiles or hippos in it at the moment. Fortunately, Sari had the foresight to pack some swimming suits for the three of them and they were enjoying the cool waters.

Matt and Chloe wandered into the clearing, looking like they'd gone a few rounds with OmegaMorph and glaring darkly

"Whoa, what happened to you guys?" asked Sari.

"Family argument." said Matt.

"Not to mention a few mandrills took some pot shots," said Chloe.

"Big deal," said another voice. The group turned to see NegaMorph, who had clawmarks all over his body and several parts that look like they've been bitten off.

"Ok...what happened?" sighed Matt

"Well, it started when I took a bad turn when I went for a morning walk..." said NegaMorph.

NegaMorph glared down as his legs were slowly being sucked into the ground. "Argh, quicksand, why'd it have to be quicksand?" A few seconds later, he stopped sinking. "Huh, not that deep."

Suddenly there was a snarling noise behind him. NegaMorph slowly turned to be nose to nose with a angry looking Leopard. "Oh, hell no..." he said dully.

The leopard bared its fangs and growled at NegaMorph. NegaMorph glared back and yelled "BRING IT ON!"

"...and that was that," said NegaMorph.

"Ok...are we gonna get into trouble? I'm sure leopards are endangered," Chloe muttered, "More endangered."

"Don't worry, I didn't kill him. In fact, that's him over there," said NegaMorph pointing. The group turned to see a bald leopard glaring at them. It growled before slinking off into the bushes. "Yeah, I'm up for round 2 any time you get your spine back!" yelled NegaMorph.

"Ok...where's the fur, NegaMorph?" said Matt, in a annoyed voice.

"I made it into this," said NegaMorph, holding up a leopardskin tote bag, "And look what else I made." He reached into the bag and pulled a leopardskin bikini set. "Which one of you girls wants this?"

Matt later said he had been happy he was so near the water and that Megan was only capable of low level fireball spells.

NegaMorph coughed and said, "I thought every girl wanted one of these."

Matt added later that maybe he should have just legged it as water conducted electricity...

NegaMorph fell backwards and muttered, "Smegging lying comic books."

Matt staggered about. "Does 'friendly fire' mean anything to you guys?" he rasped

"C'mon girls, let's find somewhere else to cool off," said Chloe. As the three girls left, Gary looked confused.

"I didn't even do anything!" he said.

"I suffer..." Matt said, twitching

Since Blackarachnia was 'taking a powder' as Fanzone would say, the experiments decided to pay Scorponok a visit to see how he's doing.

"I don't see why I cannot move around..." complained Scorponok

"Well, there isn't really much going on, anyways," said Draco, "Optimus has been putting together a report to give Ultra Magnus, Bumblebee spends most of his time whining about being away from civilization, and Prowl's trying to teach Bulkhead and Dune Runner how to meditate."

There was a distant explosion that shook dust down followed by a distant "Die, bugs, die."

Draco added, "And Matt's gone stir crazy."

"And what about the Dinobots?" asked Scorponok.

"Uh, they kinda need to be kept penned in one area or else they'll take over the jungle," said Chip.

Lilo added, "All in all...it's pretty dull." There was another explosion and Matt's voice laughing insanely.

"Yeah, we would have brought you something to entertain yourself, but Morph ate it...again," said Contrinus.

At that, there was a hiccup that was cut off mid noise by an explosion.

Lilo added, "Jumba made it."

"That's alright," said Scorponok, "As long as I have company, I'm satisfied."

"I bet you'd Miss Black Widow's company more," said Draco grinning.

Scorponok could not blush but if he could, he would have. "I don't know what you mean..." he said.

"Oh come on, you fell heads over landing gears the moment you laid optics on her," said Draco.

"To very sickening effects," added Chip.

"That's rubbish," said Scorponok, coughing.

"C'mon, even Morph can see it, if he didn't get his head stuck in a hole half the time,' said Contrinus.

"Or blown up..." said Draco as there was a hiccup explosion.

"Well, even if it were true, which it's not, it's no concern of yours," said Scorponok with as much dignity as he could muster.

The experiments just grinned. Scorponok changed the subject as best he could "Ok...how his Waspinator's training coming?"

"Well...it's going good and not so good," said Lilo.

Scorponok stared at Lilo. "What do you mean?" he said suspiciously.

"Well, talking to him isn't going too far right now," said Lilo, "So Jumba's going to try to fix his brain."

Scorponok said slowly, "This is the same Jumba who is a self proclaimed 'evil genius'."

"Yes, that's what we thought," said Chip.

"So...not good?" said Scorponok.

"Nope," said Lilo as a large zapping sound was heard.

Meanwhile, Matt was investigating the aforementioned zapping noises, following them to the clearing where Waspinator was. "Ok...what's...oh good lord," he said, seeing the scene in front of him

Jumba and Pleakley were both in their 'evil genius' outfits and Pleakley was detaching the wires that were attached to Waspinator's head. "Ah, mercenary boy, you are in time to see Jumba cure vasp robot of criminal madness."

"Okaay...did Lilo approve this?" Matt asked.

"She vas outvoted," said Jumba.

"Ok...as long as that's good...I'll just...just stand over there behind the boulder," said Matt, backing up.

Jumba looked at his computers readings and said, "Hmm... ve have good news and bad news. Good news is that vasp robot is no longer homicidal maniac. Bad news is that he now believes he is barnyard vaterfowl."

Waspinator immediately started making quacking noises and trying to flap his arms.

Matt stared for a minute before laughing his head off and, to add insult, took a holo-image on his wrist-comp.

Just then, Lilo and Contrinus came into the clearing. "Hey guys," said Lilo, "We came to see how you were doing with-" She noticed Waspinator pecking at the ground.

"Did you make him think he's a chicken?" demanded Contrinus.

"No, we made him think he's a duck," said Pleakley.

"This is classic. I'm recording this...try and make him think he's Elvis," said Matt, gasping from too much laughter.

"Guys, we're supposed to be helping him, not make him look ridiculous," said Lilo.

"So? He tried to kill us." said Matt.

"How would you feel if you were made to think you're a bird?" said Lilo, "No offense, Contrinus."

"None taken," said Contrinus.

"So? I was a bird for half an hour once," said Matt.

"But you kept your mind," said Contrinus.

"He's an asswipe, I wanna see what happens next," said Matt. However, Waspinator spotted Matt and apparently saw him as a worm. Waspinator burst his bonds and started waddling towards Matt. "FIX IT. FIX IT!" yelled Matt, backing up.

"Jumba needs to rig up processor again," said Jumba.

"JUST DO IT, YOU NUTBALL!" yelled Matt, running for it.

Lilo and Contrinus started laughing as Matt ran from a quacking Waspinator.

**Five minutes later...**

Matt was not in a good mood and had several bandages on. The spiderbots had managed to restrain Waspinator and the processor was recharged.

"Ok, it's agreed, no brainwashing Wasp into thinking he's an animal," said Matt.

Jumba nodded. "I have worked the bugs out of processor...no more earth animal brains."

"Good, last thing we need is a giant robot acting like a wild animal," said Chloe.

"Especially the ones that have stomachs," said Matt.

Jumba nodded. "Wasp robot...Zis may tingle," he said to Waspinator and activated the processor.

Waspinator's eyes flash a little as he came back online. "Bumblebot, Wazpinator must destroy Bumblebot," said Waspinator.

"And it's back to square vun," said Jumba.

Matt glared at Waspinator. "Can't we at leash shut him up?" he said snapping.

"Certainly," said Jumba, "Is simple matter to disable speech synthesizer." He tapped on his computer's keyboard and Waspinator's voice clicked off, though he kept ranting.

"Eerie," said Contrinus, "Like someone's put him on mute."

Matt said, "Right...let me try. Oi, wasp boy...do you know what spiderbots are?" he called up.

That seemed to set something off as Waspinator started yelling silently. "Didn't know they scared him that much," said Matt.

"Actually, if I'm lip-reading him correctly, I think he's talking about Blackarachnia," said Pleakley, "And not to pleasantly if I might add."

At the same time, Blackarachnia walked by, looking in a foul mood. "Not her, let's see. I have the Cybertronian name here somewhere..." said Matt

"Out of my way," snapped Blackarachnia, punting Matt aside before stomping out.

"Hmm, Jumba is seeing bigger resemblance between spider robot and mercenary girl," said Jumba.

Matt got up unsteadily. "I see the resemblance," he said, dizzily.

"Gee, I wonder what got her so grumpy," said Lilo.

Contrinus paused and said, "Wait, where's Draco, Chip, and Morph?"

"I think they've gone to see Scorponok," said Lilo.

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Oh lord." The group quickly went towards Scorponok's chamber.

When they got there, they found the three experiments in question, looking rather sheepish. Scorponok had a rather bewildered look on his face as well as a hand-shaped dent on his cheek.

"Ok...who wants to be first to tell me a huge whopper of a lie?" said Matt.

"Well, these three offered me advice for how to get more of Blackarachnia's attention," said Scorponok, pointing at the experiments, "First, I tried to 'dazzle her with my intelligence' like Chip said, but I think I just bored her. Then I tried the 'pickup lines' Draco suggested, but they seemed to offend her. And then I used the giant seltzer bottle Morph provided to squirt her, but that just made her slap me and storm off."

"That'll do it..." said Matt after a minute's though.

"You took romantic advice from those three?" said Chloe incredulously, "Draco only hooked up with Contrinus due to love at first sight, Chip has no romantic side, and Morph's a smegging idiot."

Draco and Contrinus glared saying, "Hey!" Chip glared and Morph was about to glare before realizing he had no reason to disagree.

"Honestly, you'd get better advice from Matt," said Chloe.

Matt nodded "Yes you wou...OI!"

Scorponok looked confused and said, "This 'romance' concept is a lot more complicated that it looks."

Meanwhile, in another area of the Congo jungle, a small helicopter was hovering over the area. The weird part was the lack of any pilot.

What was even stranger was the alien-looking walker in the cargo hold. "I don't see why we have to go out into the middle of nowhere," complained Spittor.

"Because Strika said we had too. You could always go back and explain you don't want to though," said Blackout.

"No way. I'm not getting blasted by her cannons. But I still think this is a waste of time," said Spittor.

Blackout replied "This is the last area where we had the signal," he said, ignoring Spittor's moaning.

"You honestly think he would come here? No robot would go to a place so, so...organic," said Spittor.

Blackout said, "That is true, but Strika will tear us to bits if we don't check the signal anyway."

"Fine, then we better land and start searching through this mess," said Spittor.

"The sooner we find the signal, the sooner we can get out of here," agreed Blackout.

Back at the caves, Chloe decided she needed to set Scorponok straight on 'courting behavior' while she had Contrinus straighten out Draco, Chip, and Morph.

Matt was also there. "Chloe...he's a robot the size of a small three story building..." he said

"True, but this is too pathetic even for me," said Chloe, "You think you could do better?"

Matt thought about this and decided on honesty. "No," he said

"Right," said Chloe, "Now Scorponok, I want you to forget about what Draco and Morph told you. Chip's advice is fine, if you can keep it within her interests."

"Yes, always try to keep your love happy," said Matt, before wilting under Chloe's glare that said 'Shut up'.

"But I'm not sure what to talk to her about," said Scorponok, "It's like we're from different planets."

"Well...you are," said Matt, lamely.

"Well, try to find something you have in common, like...how you became techno-organic in the first place," said Chloe.

"Yes...establish common ground," said Matt

Scorponok thought for a minute and said, "It's...not a comforting story to tell."

"Well, neither is her's." The three of them turned to see Optimus walk in.

"Hi...we're trying to make sure Blackarachnia doesn't kill Scorponok by accident," said Matt.

"So I've heard," said Optimus, "I've also heard that Draco, Chip, and Morph gave him wrong advice."

"Chip's was partially ok...but yeah, the others were dumb. But if you listen carefully you can hear Contrinus 'explaining' what they did wrong," said Matt

The five of them paused for a moment before hearing a 'smack' and Morph whine, "Ow, why do you hit so hard?"

"Contrinus has taken lessons on explanations from Chloe," said Matt cheerfully

"I see," said Optimus, "Well, if you really need to know, I can tell you how she came to be the way she is now. I doubt you'll be able to get her to tell it herself."

The trio listened as Optimus told Blackarachnia's story. "Damn...no wonder she's screwed up," said Matt.

"And you can see why she's so distrustful of others," said Optimus.

Chloe nodded. "I'd probably be the same in her place," she said and kicked Matt who grinned,

Scorponok thought for a long time before he said, "Come to think of it, her story is not too different from mine. Yes, I believe I can relate to that, if I could find an opportunity to talk with her."

"So what's your story?" said Matt to Scorponok.

"You'll have to wait until after I tell it to Blackarachnia," said Scorponok as he got up, "I intend for her to be the first being I've ever told this story to."

"Ok...where is she, come to think of that?" said Matt.

"She's outside at the moment," said Optimus, "I had finished with my report to Ultra Magnus when she stormed out of the cave. I assume your friends' 'inadequate' advice was the cause for that."

"That's probably an accurate estimation," said Matt distantly.

Jumba came into the cave. "I am pleased to be saying that the wasp robot has calmed down after arachnid robots hit him on processor repeatedly though he is still giving threats against Bumblebee," he said.

"Well, maybe some fresh air would make him a little less stir crazy," said Optimus, "Scorponok, you take Bumblebee and Blackarachnia for a short hike with Waspinator. It could do some good for building friendships."

Matt looked shocked. "Ok...have the spiderbots hit you too? I don't usually have psychic flashes but I foresee a small battle if you cause that pairing," he said.

"Then perhaps you'd like to volunteer one of your men to join them," said Optimus.

Matt began thinking. Which crewmember had upset him the most recently? After a minute he remembered that NegaMorph had sold his weapons while he had been on Avalar. "NegaMorph will be happy to go," he said, elbowing Chloe when she began to object and mouthed, "You helped sell my guns...wanna join him?" to her

Chloe was about to object anyways when she remembered the incident with the leopardskin bikini that morning. "I'll go get him," she said in her false-sweet voice.

Later, NegaMorph was walking the quartet of Cybertronians through the jungle. "Stupid Lynch...I made him a profit on that deal..." he was muttering.

"Ah man," moaned Bumblebee, "Why do I have to walk around in the middle of nowhere, especially with the one bot that wants to slag me most?"

Waspinator glared at Bumblebee. A spiderbot was perched on his head, keeping the Cybertronian in check. "Wazpinator not like company of Bumblebot either," he said.

"Frankly, I'd be better off without the lot of you," grumbled Blackarachnia.

NegaMorph sighed. "Break it up. I want to get through this hike without being torn to bits. I always misplace a bit," he said

"Well, if we keep up a lively conversation, the walk won't seem that long," said Scorponok.

"Ok...let's try a safe topic. What do you guys wanna do once all this is over? Bumblebee, you first," said NegaMorph, in desperate cheerfulness. He had no doubt that the spiderbot would shoot everyone if a fight started, including NegaMorph.

"Well, I don't mind being on Earth," said Bumblebee, "But I wouldn't mind getting some things on Cybertron to make our base feel more like home."

NegaMorph sighed inwardly. Nothing there could cause offence to the spiderbot. "Ok...Scorponok...what about you?" he said. He was sure that some of the spiderbots had followed their fellow bot and were hiding in the bushes next to the track.

"Well, that's a bit harder to say," said Scorponok, "At first, I wanted to stay here until the anti-Decepticon and anti-organic propaganda has simmered down on Cybertron, but I don't know if that's going to happen any time soon. Then again, the natural parts of this planet make me grateful for being part organic."

Blackarachnia made a scoffing noise. "Hah...organic," she muttered.

"You do not find your uniqueness interesting?" asked Scorponok.

Blackarachnia spun on Scorponok. "Interesting? I was considered a freak even by the Decepticons. It ruined my life ever since I 'earned' it," she snarled

Scorponok stared calmly back and asked, "Did you consider yourself a freak or is it because others consider you so?"

"Wazpinator knowz what he wantz," said Waspinator, "Wazpinator will slag Bumblebot, then Spiderbot, then every other Autobot that turned against Wazpinator."

NegaMorph froze. "You didn't mean it...not about the spiderbots...right?" he said nervously, looking around to see the shadows lighting up with red dots all looking at Waspinator.

"Wazpinator will slag Spiderbot. Spiderbot betrayed Wazpinator, tried to use Wazpinator as guinea pig. Spiderbot nearly slag Wazpinator with tranzwarp field," snapped Waspinator, glaring at Blackarachnia.

"Oh no...you know...that thing on your head is also a spiderbot," said NegaMorph.

Waspinator looked upwards to notice the angry-looking spiderbot on his head. "Slag," he muttered.

Scorponok and Bumblebee had gone after Blackarachnia when they heard the screams.

They turned around to see the spiderbots dismembering Waspinator. "Good thing he can heal from that kind of thing," said Bumblebee.

They were actually impressed when Waspinator got free and ran for it with what looked like 80 spiderbots with plasma cutter mods chasing him.

The creepy part was the last one that was wearing a fox hunting hat.

"He'll be fine, I think," said NegaMorph.

There was an explosion and a scream. "Like I said...I think," said NegaMorph, "They'll get him back to camp...probably in pieces but back."

"Oh sure, that'll help him get his sanity back," said Blackarachnia sarcastically, "This whole stupid hike's just been a waste of time."

NegaMorph seemed to snap at this. "That's IT!" he roared, making the three Cybertronians stop. NegaMorph rounded on Blackarachnia. "YOU...shut up with you 'oh, I'm a mutant, woe is me.' You think you have it hard? Try having your DNA forcibly extracted for use in a super mutant and then you can moan, you whiny giant SPIDER!" he yelled. He stopped as his brain replayed.

NegaMorph noticed Blackarachnia's glare and said, "Erm, maybe I went a bit too far with-" He didn't get the chance to finish before Blackarachnia punted him.

Bumblebee whistled. "That's a good shot," he said.

Scorponok watched NegaMorph go. "Hmm, I wonder where he'll land," he said.

Matt had finally managed to get a wash and slapped a bug on his arm. "Urgh...I hate bugs. It might as well be raining blobs..." he said and stopped as he heard a steady scream getting louder...

Bumblebee watched as a distant explosion launched NegaMorph up into the sky. "Wonder where he'll land next?" he asked.

Chloe had also heard the explosion. She shrugged. "Matt...I wonder what he blew up?" she said to herself before looking up as a shadow appeared...

The three Cybertronians watched as NegaMorph was sent upwards by a flare of electricity. "That must be Chloe," said Blackarachnia.

NegaMorph crashed somewhere else and a blue blast of energy sent him up again. "That's Sari's blast," said Bumblebee.

The next time NegaMorph crashed, he was sent flying by a burst of flame. "And that would be Grimlock," said Scorponok.

Finally NegaMorph landed in a smoking heap in front of the trio again. "Round and round the mulberry bush..." he sang in a dazed voice.

"Ooh, he'll be feeling that for a while," said Bumblebee.

At that point, Waspinator burst back into view in time to be tripped and mobbed by the spiderbots. Luckily they just piled on top of him to freak him out.

"I am so glad I'm not related to those things," said Blackarachnia.

One of the spiderbots turned to look at them with a 'go away' look in its optic.

"I suppose we'll have to take them back so they can be treated," said Scorponok.

Just then, the wind started to pick up. The spiderbots suddenly lost interest, chittering to each other before shooting off into the bushes or up the trees. "What's with those guys?" asked Bumblebee before looking up to see a large green military helicopter above them. "Uh oh," he said.

The side of the chopper opened and a blue Cybertronian walker jumped out. Both of them fell down to the ground where they assumed the forms of Blackout and Spittor. The spiderbots couldn't believe their luck. Two Decepticons all to themselves.

Blackout looked at Bumblebee, Scorponok, and Blackarachnia for a few nanocliks before saying, "Hey, I know those guys. That one right there used to be Sandstorm." He pointed at Scorponok and said, "He attacked us at that island."

Spittor looked at Blackarachnia. "What are you doing with these Autobots?" he said accusingly. Neither of the Decepticons could see or hear the spiderbots slowly coming out of the foliage behind them.

"Uh, I was going to take these two as prisoners," said Blackarachnia, "Uh, Strika would probably want them, right?"

Bumblebee gulped before suddenly seeing the spiderbots advancing with obvious mayhem on their CPU's. "You two better be careful," said Bumblebee, "Spiderbots are known to be very treacherous and they love to strip robots apart for the heck of it."

Blackarachnia glared at Bumblebee and growled, "Why you little..."

Bumblebee said, "I meant SPIDERbots," urgently.

Blackarachnia looked to see the aforementioned robots advancing on her ex-associates. "Oooh," she said before smirking.

"What are you two-" started Spittor before remembering the creatures that threatened him before. He quickly turned around and started blasting out explosive globs of jelly.

The spiderbots were sadly faster, most of them deciding to jump on Blackout. The rest scittered around Spittor and swarmed onto him, one shoving a coconut it had found into Spittor's mouth. Spittor, however, merely ate it before processing it into more explosive gel and continue firing at them. This apparently was not a good thing as the spiderbots decided to deal with this, several jumping on Spittor's head and starting using arc welders on Spittor's mouth hinge.

Blackout was not doing much better. "Get off of me!" yelled Blackout as ripped off handfuls of the spiderbots and flung them away. He tried to stomp on several of them before he used his EMP stomp. Unfortunately, this just made the spiderbots even more intent on mayhem, one skittering up and into a join in Blackout's armor. Blackout didn't noticed at first until he felt an uncomfortable tingling in his leg. Said tingling turned to pain when something started messing with his circuits.

The other spiderbots took advantage of this to literally bury Blackout in numbers. They finally moved away to show that they had welded Blackout's movement joints solid, one spiderbot gluing a flag to Blackout's head before jumping off.

However, during their assault on the Team Charr members, the spiderbots forgot about Waspinator. Which gave Waspinator plenty of time to heal up his injuries. Just as the spiderbots seemed to be gaining victory, Waspinator stood up and shouted, "WAZPINATOR WILL HAVE REVENGE!" He then turned and stared firing blasts from his bug arms at the spiderbots.

This was probably what saved the Team Charr members as every spiderbot jumped on Waspinator. To them, Waspinator had been amusing and something to tease...until he thought he could shoot at them and actually stay out of stasis lock after.

Spittor managed to get back up and spotted the spiderbots on Waspinator. He didn't know the green bot, but he certainly wanted the mechanical parasites gone. Fortunately for him, Team Charr researched spiderbots after the last encounter with them and found that there was a certain sound frequency that acted as a repellent, for a limited time. Spittor reached into a compartment pulled out a small device that Oil Slick had designed for such an occasion. He clicked it on, causing a high-pitched sound to emanate from it.

Blackout got up very stiffly, primarily because his repair systems were still trying to free up his joints. "Who's this guy?" asked Blackout, looking at Waspinator.

Bumblebee, Scorponok, and Blackarachnia had been content enough to let the spiderbots handle the Decepticons, but when Waspinator attacked and the spiderbots were driven off, they started to get worried. "Wasp, keep away from those guys," said Bumblebee.

"Wazpinator not trust what Bumblebot say," said Waspinator.

"Too right you shouldn't," said Blackout, "You should be on our side."

Spittor glared at Blackout and muttered, "Hurry up...I think they're adapting." There was already rustling from the bushes, several red optics glaring.

"Wasp, you don't want to go to their side, believe me," said Scorponok.

"Why not?" demanded Waspinator, "They treat Wazpinator better than Autobotz. Fleshiez never do anything but hurt Wazpinator. Spiderbotz hurt Wazpinator for no good reason. Autobotz never been nice Wazpinator." Waspinator turned to Blackout and Spittor and said, "Wazpinator want in with Decepticonz."

Spittor ducked a laser beam that caused a good 4 inches to vanish from the tree trunk it hit. "Fine...welcome aboard," he said in a rush.

"Wasp, please, don't-" started Bumblebee before the ground started shaking. "Uh, are earthquakes common here?" he asked. Just then, the ground opened up beneath them. Not just cracking apart, but sliding down and open.

The Autobots and Blackarachnia went head of heels into the pit. The spiderbots all apparently vanished at this. They had been tempted to push the Decepticons in too and saturate the hole with enough laser fire to K.O a planet cracker but Matt would be annoyed if they shot his friends. However, they did settle for causing Blackout's leg joints to act up again. This caused the colossal bruiser to lose his balance. Before Waspinator and Spittor could get out of the way, Blackout fell forward, knocking them all into the pit.

The spiderbots all appeared at the rim to look down. While they were not going to shoot, they did lever a small boulder to fall down and land on Spittor's head.

After that, the cover of the trap slid back into place. NegaMorph groaned and got back up. He would have tried to do something, but the multiple blastings he got took a lot out of him. "This probably isn't good," said NegaMorph before he started hobbling back to camp. The spiderbots, needing to vent, decided to help him get back to camp faster, grabbing NegaMorph and throwing him in the direction of camp.

Meanwhile, Meltdown was in one part of his secret lab. He was currently examing a sample of organic tissue from a local tarantula underneath a microscope. "Hmm... very interesting," said Meltdown, "Spiders can be such interesting creatures, so long as they're not spitting webs on you."

The door into his lab opened and Colossus Rhodes walked in. "The trap's just been opened up. I think we got something," he said

"Strange, I haven't set it today," said Meltdown, "Cyrus, have you noticed how the machines here are acting different than usual lately?"

Rhodes shrugged. "Not really."

"Well, maybe it's just me," said Meltdown before standing up, "We may as well see what we've caught."

As the two of them left the room, the microscope Meltdown was using started to move. A couple of clicks, twists, and flips, and the microscope assumed the form of Scalpel. "No," said the Decepticon, "Soon you'll be seeink vat I caught."

Back at camp, Matt was looking around. "Hey...how long is this walk Blackarachnia was taking?" he said when he saw Ratchet.

"Don't know, they should have come back by now," said Ratchet. He turned on his comlink and said, "Bumblebee, come in," but got nothing but static. "Bumblebee, do you read me?"

"Hey...could be just bad reception...this is a jungle, not renounded for their comm. reception," said Matt.

"Maybe," said Ratchet, "But my gut says otherwise."

Matt said, "I didn't know robots had guts."

"I'm just using one of your planet's expressions," said Ratchet, "Cybertronians don't have the same kind of digestive systems as humans. At least most Cybertronians."

"It's probably nothing. My spiderbots won't let anything happen. It's more likely for one of them to land on me..." said Matt.

Just then, Ratchet looked upwards and shouted, "Incoming!" Matt looked up a second too late to see NegaMorph land on him.

NegaMorph groaned from where he had landed. "At least I landed on something soft," he moaned before Matt's voice said, "Get off me...NOW!" NegaMorph groaned and said, "Oh, not again," before being blasted off by Matt's plasma control.

After NegaMorph had been brought back round, Chloe asked the big question. "Where are the others...more importantly, Where did you leave the spiderbots?"

"Two Decepticons got the drop on us," said NegaMorph.

"What did they look like?" asked Optimus.

"One of them was the big helicopter guy. And the other kinda looked like a frog."

"Blackout and Spittor. What are those two doing here?" said Ratchet.

"I don't know," said NegaMorph, "But the spiderbots set themselves upon them. They probably would have won too if Waspinator didn't interfere."

Matt spoke this time. "I told you we shoulda let Jumba try again."

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he was lucid enough when he switched to the Decepticons' side," said NegaMorph.

"Oh hell...I hate wasps," muttered Matt.

"I can't believe Wasp would betray us like that," said Optimus.

"Oh, I don't think it's so hard to believe," said NegaMorph, his voice taking a sour tone, "What with you mercs zapping him for every little offense, the spiderbots mangling for no offense at all, and you Autobots haven't been very welcome to him either."

"The spiderbots mangle everyone though," said Matt to himself.

"Well, they ought to at least know better than to mess with someone who's been traumatized and made partially deranged," said NegaMorph, "Present company excluded."

Optimus glanced over his shoulder and said, "Uh, NegaMorph, you might not want to say that about the spiderbots."

"And why shouldn't I?" snapped NegaMorph, "Those little creeps are nothing more than nuisances. They've got no conscience, no self-control, not even any courtesy. No wonder the little psychos are considered vermin on your planet." There was a whirring noise...rather like a very small chainsaw revving up. "...aaand they're behind me, aren't they?" said NegaMorph glumly. The group nodded slowly and NegaMorph turned in time for the newly returned spiderbots to jump at him to...explain their grievances.

"I suppose we'll have to wait until they're done before we can hear the rest of that story," said Ratchet.

"Yeah..." said Matt in a small voice.

After the spiderbots had been prized away, NegaMorph was able to continue. "Anyways, after Wasp switched sides, the ground opened up and they all fell into a trap," said NegaMorph, "Then my...other travel companions gave me a 'lift' back to camp."

The spiderbots all chittered in their creepy laugh from where they were watching. Matt looked confused at this though. "Someone dug a robot trap...I know I'm gonna regret this but do you guys know anyone who would do that?" he said.

"Well, I don't think there are any Decepticons based out here," said Optimus, "But I wouldn't be surprised if it was one of Meltdown's traps."

"Mr. Acid Bath? What's he doing here?" said Matt, sighing.

"Probably still in his lab," said Ratchet, "We never did manage to cover all of that base."

"I vote that this time we make sure," said Techo.

"Ok, but we better be careful," said Optimus, "Meltdown's probably has defense up again by now. And who knows what else he could have added?"

"Good...it means we can drive up his insurance even more," said Matt cockily.

"I'd be more worried about Bumblebee and the others," said Chloe, "You know how much Meltdown likes to melt bots."

Back in the pit, the occupants were not pleased, mostly cause there was not much space.

"Blackout, get your arm out of my face," growled Spittor.

"Can't move, deal with it," said Blackout.

"I already have to deal with this rock those robo-ticks dropped on me," said Spittor.

"Hey, I'm buried under all of you," whined Bumblebee, "How do you think I feel?"

Scorponok tried to get loose. "I think...I almost...got loose..." he said before moving a bit...right onto Blackarachnia. "Ah...this isn't what it seems like..." he began.

"Keep your servos to yourself!" snapped Blackarachnia.

"Ooh, does the spiderbot have a boyfriend?" teased Blackout.

Spittor looked around "What spiderbot?" he said a bit desperately. The last thing he needed was for a couple of spiderbots to have ended up in the pit as well.

Blackarachnia glared in Blackout's direction. "You better shut down your voice synthesizer," she hissed.

"Blackarachnia's got a crush..." sang Blackout in an annoying tone.

Blackarachnia snapped at this and attempted what would have been a very painful punch. However, Chloe could have told her that doing this in suck an enclosed space was not really a good idea.

"Ow, stop hitting me!" said Scorponok.

"Move your overgrown chassis so I can get as his overgrown chassis!" snapped Blackarachnia.

"Allow me," said Scorponok before trying to use his tail to sting Blackout.

Wasp yelped as Scorponok scored a hit on him instead. "Gah...why you hit Wazpinator? Wazpinator not say anything."

"Excuse me, I thought you were the helicopter," said Scorponok.

"Wazpinator not heli-bot," retorted Waspinator, adding quietly, "Scorpobot need new optics."

Blackarachnia glared and tried to elbow Wasp, but got Bumblebee instead. "Ow, what was that?" asked Bumblebee.

"Sorry, thought you were the wasp," said Blackarachnia.

Meanwhile, Meltdown and Colossus were looking at the feed from a camera in the pit. "Well, I never expected the Autobots to pay another visit so soon," said Meltdown.

"And a whole lot of them too," said Collosus.

"Well, we shouldn't leave our guests waiting," said Meltdown, making some acid flow over his glove.

"Yeah," said Colossus before saying, "Uh, which way is it to the trap?" Meltdown sighed. Sometimes he wished he had selected a more intelligent volunteer for his experiment. Xenobyte was hardly any better as he kept forgetting the subject of the conversation or what he was supposed to be doing.

Meltdown sighed, "Follow me," and the duo walked out into the corridor. A second later, Scalpel sneaked in via a vent and landed on the wall controls.

"Ooh, zis shall be fun," said Scalpel as he started adjusting the controls, "Scurry avay into the maze, my little mice."

Scalpel proceeded to press various buttons, soundlessly moving the bases's layout and quickly trapping Colossus and Meltdown without their knowledge. He noticed Xenobyte on the monitors but decided he would not be a problem. "Soon, I vill have my moment of triumph," gloated Scalpel.

The spiderbot watching from the vent considered this. It had been left behind when the gang had invaded the base. It scuttled down, and landed with precision on one of the trap buttons that connected to Xenobyte's room.

Meanwhile, Xenobyte was trying to get his priorities straight. "Ok, now that I've stabilized my body and mind, it's time for me to..." He trailed off and paused for a moment. "Do what? Chop down a redwood? Eat 1 ton of marshmallows? What was it again?"

Unnoticed, a small green gas began to seep into the room behind him.

Xenobyte thought for a moment and said, "I've got it! I'll, I'll, I'lllllll..." The gas was supposed to be a knockout gas, but due to Xenobyte being a completely different species from human, it had another effect. Xenobyte's various eyes started spinning as he starting singing, "I'll be working on the railroad, all the live long day..."

Scalpel was watching on the screen. He had not even noticed the spiderbot behind him, given how sneaky the spiderbot was. "Vitch button caused zat?" he said before hearing a whirring and looking to see the spiderbot who proceeded to jump on him and crawl back into the air duct. Scalpel stared after the spiderbot and muttered, "I can believe I'm related to zose creatures." An optic appeared at the vent for a second and Scalpel added quickly, "Not zat zere is anythink wrong vith zat." It never paid off to upset someone crazier then you.

It turned that Meltdown had been able to fix his security systems since last time. Because now the gang was hiding behind rocks to avoid the blasts from the laser and acid turrets.

"It'll be easy, you said," taunted Chloe as a blast took a chunk out of the rock they were behind.

"Ok, so he amped up the turrets a little, give me a break," said Matt. A beam sliced neatly through the rock, going between then and cutting the rock into two halves. "Ok...he amped them up a lot," said Matt.

"We're going to need more firepower to get through," said Chloe before pausing and asking, "Where are the Dinobots?"

Matt said, "We want people to survive," and winced as a beam hit his plasma shields.

"We'll just need them as battering rams. Unless you think you can hit those turrets from here," said Chloe.

Matt peered round his half of the boulder and nearly got a third nostril. "Ok, call them," he said, ducking back.

Chloe set her comlink to the Autobot frequency and managed to get Grimlock. It turned out that their upgrade that made them Transformers also given them comlinks. "Grimlock, we need some help over here," said Chloe.

"Grimlock not work for puny humans," replied the Dinobot.

Chloe glared at her comm. and said, "If you don't come here right now, I'll have the spiderbots remove your legs when you're asleep." It was worth noting that being shot at tended to make Chloe not very charitable in her thinking.

"Let me try," said Matt before using his own comlink, "Hey Grimlock, if you help us here, not only will you get the chance to get back at Meltdown, but you'll be helping spider-lady too."

Matt winced and moved his comm.. away as Grimlock roared "GRIMLOCK HELP SPIDER LADY!"

Matt turned to smirk at Chloe and said, "You just gotta know where the guy's mental levers are."

"Yeah, you would know," said Chloe.

Matt was about to reply before the ground started to rumble. "Oh hell, I think we should move. I don;t think Grimlock and co have a concept of moving round objects," said Matt.

This seemed mostly true as the three robotic dinosaurs came charging out of the jungle roaring, crashing through anything that was in their way. By sheer luck, the Lynch siblings avoided being squashed. They turned to look at what was left of the door. The turrets had been reduced to melted lumps of metal and the door was now in the shape of Grimlock's silhouette.

"Ok...I think we can say 'all clear'," said Matt.

"Yes, I think we can confirm that," said Optimus, "Autobots, transform and roll in!" He and the other Autobots transformed and rolled forwards towards the tunnel, stopping long enough for the mercs to climb in.

Matt and the mercs headed down the tunnels and corridors too small for the Cybertronians and were quick to hear singing coming from a room nearby. Matt blew the door open to see Xenobyte, acting like he had just drunk his way out a tankerful of vodka.

"Uh, wasn't his insanity fixed by his reformatting?" asked Matt.

Xenobyte looked blearily over at them. "Mummy? Izzat you?" he slurred.

"He's definitely out of it," said Chloe.

Matt held up a hand and walked over to Xenobyte before gently pushing him over. The technorganic symbiote fell over like a domino. "Ooooh... that was fuuuun..." said Xenobyte.

"Hey, wait a second," said Matt, "He's not drunk, he's drugged out."

"How would you know?" asked Chris.

"Erm...never mind," said Matt, trying to sound innocent.

"Why would Meltdown drug his own partner?" asked Chloe.

"I don't think he would. Meltdown doesn't seem like the type to randomly drug his partner," said Matt, poking Xenobyte who laughed.

"Maybe Rhodes did it," said Techo, "He might have gotten jealous of his boss's new partner."

"I doubt that guy would know what would be happy gas for Xenobyte over here," said Chloe.

"You are my sunshine, my golden sunshine..." sang Xenobyte. Chloe signed and stamped on Xenobyte, cutting him off mid-song.

"Something weird's going on here, and I'm not saying that because we're in the secret lab of a mad scientist with acid for skin," said Matt.

The others nodded, including Xenobyte. "I saw a German metal spider," he said blearily.

"Well, Eye Guy here asides, we need to find our guys before they get dumped into a smelting pool or something," said Matt.

Back at the pit, a minor ceasefire had been called, if only cause nobody could move enough to hurt anyone else. "This is demeaning," said Blackout sulkily.

"Hey, at least you're up on the top," said Bumblebee, "I'm getting compacted down here."

"Wazpinator wishes Bumblebot would shut up," grumbled Waspinator.

Suddenly, there was a rumbling sound. "What was that?" asked Blackarachnia.

"Sorry, I don't think that fruit is settling too well," said Spittor.

Blackout glared. "Don't even think about it," he said threateningly.

"What? What's he talking about?" asked Scorponok.

Spittor started to shake as he spoke, "Well, sometimes, I eat something that's not completely energy-efficient and... uh oh." The next instant, a large amount of gas exited Spittor's exhaust port accompanied by a very rude sound and pungent odor.

"Oh boy...you need your filters changing," gagged Scorponok

That seemed to the breaking point for Blackarachnia and she screamed loudly before banging on the wall closest to her, yelling, "LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT!"

Just then, there was an even louder rumble. "That one wasn't me," said Spittor.

At that, the floor swung down like a trapdoor, dumping the entire group into a new room below the pit.

Thankfully, there was enough room to stand up in as well not having to be confined to a single space. "Thank the Allspark I'm out of there," said Blackarachnia before stretching, "Now I've to take care of one last thing." She turned around and stabbed both Blackout and Spittor with her stings, giving them a nonlethal dose of cyber-venom.

Waspinator watched in horrified fascination as his new allies keeled over. "Wazpinator sorry about spiderbot comments," he said in a terrified voice.

"Oh, I'm not angry about that," said Blackarachnia, "I just couldn't stand them talking for one more nanoklik."

Waspinator sighed with relief.

As Bumblebee stretched to get the kink out of his joints, he looked around. This place looked a lot like Blackarachnia's old lab. Only someone had outfitted it with more tech. He also noticed there were four large pods standing against a wall. "What kind of creepy place is this?" he asked.

Scorponok looked around and said, "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were in a Cybertronian lab."

"Oh, you're not that far off," said a voice. The six of them turned to see a panel in the wall open up and a small spider-like robot came out of it. "Velcome to my laboratory," said Scalpel.

Blackarachnia immediately recognized the Cybertronian. "Scalpel. That was you?" she said angrily.

"Guilty, my dear," said Scalpel, "Such a delight to see you again. And for you to bring other techno-organic beings vith you."

Blackarachnia glared. "And why have you 'invited' us?" she said, saying the 'invited' word sarcastically

"I'm glad you asked," said Scalpel, "You see, being ze top scientist among ze Decepticons is a great privilege, but I cannot stand how everyvun towers over me. And ze rub it in all ze time. 'Keep up ze good vurk, shorty', 'Vat's takink so long, pipsqueak', 'Fix me up, shrimp', it drove me nuts!"

Bumblebee looked at Scalpel and in classic Bumblebee tact said, "But you are short."

"DON'T CALL ME SHORT!" screeched Scalpel, hopping up and down with anger. Then he managed to compose himself and said, "So zat is vhy I found you so very interestink, Blackarachnia. Your techno-organic reformatink has given you so much more power. I wanted some of zat for myself."

"Well it doesn't work. Wasp over there nearly exploded," said Blackarachnia in an annoyed voice.

"Yes, vhat you did vith Vaspinator vas very interesting," said Scalpel, "Rather haphazard, but I admire ze results. I have been trying for hundreds of solar cycles to figure how to convert technological matter to part organic. It had me stumped until I read about your attempt vith Vaspinator."

Bumblebee said, "So what? You're gonna test your theories on us?"

"And have you for my minions? I zink not," said Scalpel, "After I picked up zis lab vas located here, I managed to sneak avay to here. After a veek here, studying both Blackarachnia and Meltdown's notes, I believe I've discovered a safer way of technorganic reformatink, vhich I shall use to clone my own minions."

"So why kidnap us?" said Scorponok, his hand behind him, readying its blaster.

"Vell, I needed templates to base my minions off of," said Scalpel before pausing and said, "You look familiar, have we met?"

Scorponok glared. "Briefly," he said coldly.

"Ah vell, I'm sure we'll become real familiar soon," said Scalpel before throwing a switch. Several panels opened up in the ceiling and clamps descended from them before grabbing the six Transformers.

Meanwhile, the mercs went back to the Autobots to discuss their discovery. Xenobyte, who apparently still thinks the Lynches were his parents, followed them.

The Autobots turned as they heard Matt snapped, yelling ,"FOR THE 15TH TIME...I AM NOT CALLED DADDY, DAD, DADDUMS OR FATHER. NOW SOD OFF!"

"Ah, cracking under parental stress?" teased Chloe.

"Chloe? Not helping," growled Matt.

Chloe smirked and said, "No arguing in front of junior, dear."

Matt gave Chloe an odd look and said, "Uh, we're brother and sister, so the thought of being the parents of this guy is wrong on several levels."

Chloe shrugged. "It's worth it to tease you," she said with a smirk.

"Besides, it'll be good practice for you and Kala," teased NegaMorph. The Autobots winced as a lightning bolt and plasma bolt hit NegaMorph.

"Why is that guy following you?" said Ratchet, looking at Xenobyte, whose eyes were slowly spinning.

"Because someone's drugged him enough to lose his sense of reality," said Techo.

Ratchet said, "Hmm...I thought you said his race was immune. By the way...is this yours?" he said adding the last bit in an annoyed tone and holding up a spiderbot who waved at Matt.

"Erm...maybe?" said Matt before being smacked by Chloe.

"Where'd you find him?" asked Chloe in an exasperated voice.

"This little thing dropped on top of Sari's head. Gave her a big shock," said Ratchet.

The spiderbot sniggered at that, before scuttling up Ratchet's arm and jumping onto Xenobyte's head. Unfortunately, Xenobyte mistook it for something edible, grabbed it, and shoved it into his mouth. Matt counted under his breath, getting to 3 before Xenobyte hiccupped, went cross-eyed and exploded as the spiderbot blasted its way to freedom.

"Well...least we don't have to worry till he pulls himself together," said Sari weakly.

The spiderbot however had gone over to a tunnel and was hopping up and down at them. "I think it wants us to follow it," said Prowl.

"Then it's probably leading us into a prank trap," said Chris.

The spiderbot glared at Chris, tore up a piece of rock, and threw it at him, hitting Chris between the eyes before continuing to jump up and down.

"I think it's serious," said Chloe.

"Maybe," said Matt, "But it looks like the only one of you Autobots that can fit through would be Prowl."

"I'm coming too," said Sari.

Matt shrugged, "The more the merrier. When we get there, we'll probably just have to watch anyway. Spiderbots really do enjoy their work," he said.

Prowl turned to the others and said, "You better stay here anyways in case someone tries to leave. We don't want Meltdown to get away this time."

Optimus nodded. "Be careful. We all know how dangerous Meltdown is."

The spiderbot led the way through the tunnels, lighting the way with a eerie red light from its optic. However it stopped in apparent confusion at a dead end.

"I thought these guys couldn't get lost," said Sari.

The spiderbot looked at the wall like it had offended it before shooting at it full tilt and going through, leaving an almost comical mouse hole-sized hole.

"Gee, that's convenient," said Matt sarcastically, "If we remembered to bring our shrink ray." The spiderbot came back out the hole and wandered up the wall, looking around. "Great...it's a wall. It's not like a tap'll knock it...down," said Matt, stopping as the spiderbot stabbed an area in the wall, making it crack like a mirror and fall apart. "Ok, that'll work," said Matt nervously.

The rest of the corridor was beyond the hole. "Ok...I think we know how he got away last time then." said Chloe, looking at the exposed servo's that had allowed the wall to slide back and forth.

"So this whole place is one big puzzle?" asked Sari.

"Yeah. Sneaky," said Chris. The tunnel however was sloping downwards, deeper into the depths of the base. As they got deeper, the walls began to look newer, some Cybertronian letters visible sometimes, obviously signs of some kind.

"How long did Blackarachnia live here?" asked Matt.

Prowl looked at one of the walls. "This is too new. It was built recently." Matt and the mercs instantly drew blasters at this. A new Decepticon was all they needed.

Not further in, Scalpel was preparing the systems for his cloning systems, humming some Cybertronian tune to himself as he worked. "This is like that horror movie me and Sari saw last month," said Bumblebee.

"Really? What was it?" asked Scorponok.

"Rise of the Mecha-Clones, where this quack doctor makes robot duplicates of people and tries to use them to take over the world," said Bumblebee.

"Vill you please shut up? Zis iz very delicate," said Scalpel from below.

There was a pause for a second "VAT DO YOU MEAN 'QUACK'?" yelled Scalpel.

"Well, for one thing, in order to make clones, you'll need protoforms to make them," said Blackarachnia, "And I don't see any of those lying around."

Scalpel seemed smug. "I do have your proto-nanites, my dear. Zey have proved quite useful," he said.

Blackarachnia looked embarrassed for a second before saying, "I created those nanites. You have no right to use them."

"I believe zere is an expression the Earthlinks use for zis situation," said Scalpel, "Finders keepers, losers veepers."

Blackarachnia glared and looked like she was ready to squash Scalpel.

"Now zen," said Scalpel, "Let us start ze clonink vith somethink simple, like a technorganic version of Spittor."

Spittor, who had come round by now, glared, "Don't you dare, you little spiderbot."

Scalpel glared at him and said, "I varned you about callink me 'little'." He pressed a button on the computer console, which sent a shock of electricity through Spittor as his body was scanned.

"Gnnngh...I'll rip...you apart," gibbered Spittor.

Scalpel turned to the others and said, "Ze scannink doesn't have to be as painful as his. Any other quips to make?"

Bumblebee looked and said, "Spiderbot." Unknown to Scalpel, this was not a quip as the gang's spiderbot guide had walked around the corner before Matt pulled it back out of sight.

Scalpel glared at Bumblebee and said, "Anyvay, ze nanites vill still need an organism to base off of. Und Spittor has alvays reminded me of a big fat frog."

Out in the corridor, the mercs were trying a desperate new tactics...stealth. Prowl was trying to keep the spiderbot still. "It's that little maniac from when Lockdown grabbed me," whispered Matt.

"So Xenobyte wasn't completely bonkers about the German spider robot," said Chloe.

Matt peered round again. "Guess not..." he muttered before looking up, "And there's our buds."

"Hmm... getting them free will not be easy, but I think I have a plan," said Prowl. The spiderbot which had been struggling in Prowl's grip decided to sink its fangs into his wrist and scittered towards the door. Prowl rubbed his wrist and said, "This may be trickier than I thought." The gang all went to the door and watched with minor horror as the spiderbot slowly sneaked up on Scalpel.

Just then, one of the pods opened. "Ah, my first technorganic minion is ready," said Scalpel. There was a bit of shuffling before an enormous purple frog jumped. It looked around for a minute before croaking loudly.

The spiderbot looked confused for a second before deciding to head for that instead. The frog spotted the spiderbot before lashing out with its tongue and knocking it into a utility closet.

Scalpel turned around from making the next scan ready at that. "Vat vas zat?" he said.

The frog shrugged and croaked out, "Spiderbot."

Scalpel glared and slapped the frog bot, "Don't you be startink." Then Scalpel turned to his captives and said, "Since ze first one seems to be a success, let's do something more complex, such as a rearrangement of ze template DNA." The clamps holding Scorponok lit up as they scanned his body.

Back in the corridor, Matt was looking at the large frog. He and Chloe had turned pale when the spiderbot had been sent into the closet. "We've got to get in there before they get hurt," he said.

"They don't seem to be harmed," said Prowl, "Though those clamps don't seem to be comfortable."

"You kidding? Spiderbots can make more of themselves with anything metal...and that bot's in a damn spare parts closet," whispered Matt.

"That would be a problem," said Sari, "But whatever's in that pod seems to be scarier." Matt and Chloe looked at each other before noticing the others were looking past them.

Whatever was finishing in the second pod looked very active as there was some banging going on inside it. Eventually, the pod hissed open. The instant it did that, a large yellow and green monster came out that had the head of a cobra and the body of a scorpion. It hissed loudly at everything in the room. Unfortunately, it spotted the Lynches first and hissed angrily.

"Ok, I didn't expect that to happen," said Matt as he got a plasma orb ready in his hand.

Matt and Chloe sent their own blasts at it. Unfortunately, scorpions and cobras regularly live in hot places so a few plasma and electrical burns barely scratched or slowed it down.

Scalpel noticed the blasts and said, "It looks like ve have uninvited guests. Wartoad, Quickstrike, take care of zem while I create your final teammate, with ze templates from zese three." He started up then started up the scanners for Bumblebee, Waspinator, and Blackout.

Prowl and Sari jumped back as the scorpion/cobra technorganic and the frog bot burst into the corridor. "Get em!" yelled Matt. The blasts deflected off their technorganic hides as they continued forward. The cobra-scorpion was particularly vicious as it started spitting out venom at them. "Dammit," said Matt, barely getting back in time and having to pull his armored glove off when some venom on it started eating through it.

"Why did he have to end up like a Krylock?" complained Matt.

"What would you expect?" asked Chloe, "The cobra head being on his tail?"

Wartoad however shot his tongue out and aimed a whip at Sari and Prowl.

Sari and Prowl flipped backwards, barely avoiding being tongue-lashed. "I'm so glad I stuck with those ninja lessons," said Sari.

A hail of lasers hit Wartoad in the back and the bot spun to see Techo and Chris switching their ammo to EMP rounds. Wartoad shot out his tongue and wrapping it around the two of them before hauling back into his mouth. Matt and Chloe were horrified before their teammates were spat at them, knocking them down.

Techo turned to Chris and said, "See, I told you that you need to take a shower."

"I definitely need to now," said Chris, as he looked at the frog saliva all over him.

Another tongue whip came and knocked them down, knocking Matt and Sari into the room. "Ow...Oh...hi, shorty...not working for Lockdown anymore?" said Matt, looking up to see Scalpel in front of him.

"Laugh vhile you can, ghost pilot," said Scalpel, "Ze fun has just barely begun." He pushed a button, causing the third pod to open. Matt and Sari looked to see a gigantic yellow jacket crawl out of it.

"Oh doiuble...does anyone hear creaking?" said Matt. The closet looked like it was starting to bend. The humans and robots turned to look before the door burst open and a small cascade of spiderbots poured out of the supply closet, which was much emptier now.

The spiderbots proceeded to leap on the trio of techno-organics...and anyone else in range. Wartoad was doing quite well till a much larger spiderbot about the size of a dog jumped on his back and started slamming him into the floor by jumping up and down.

"I don't have time for zis," said Scalpel before pushing a button. Suddenly, the air vents were sent to maximum circulation, creating a strong wind that started blowing the spiderbots away. Scalpel was only spared because he had plugged himself into his seat.

The larger one sadly plugged the vent when it pulled Wartoad up with it, plugging the vent.

However, that did scatter the gang enough to make them less of a concentrated threat. And Scalpel's new minions were not looking very friendly at the moment.

Scalpel jumped off the controls. "So...just in time to see my new minions," he said.

"You shouldn't have blown of the spiderbots like that," said Matt.

"Bah, vat could zose throwbacks ever hope to accomplish against my genius?" scoffed Scalpel.

"Well...they're about 100 times harder to kill than these guys," said Matt, in a casual tone. Scalpel just smirked, not believing a word, though he did jump when one of the overhead vents rattled.

"Vell, I have all ze protection I need," said Scalpel, "Und speakink of vich..." He snapped his fingers and commanded, "Buzzsaw, how about you show our audience to an outdoor theater so you can show your real potential?"

Matt looked to see the wasp techno-organic grab him and pick him up, slam him on a wall till he stopped twitching then pointed out the door, making hissing noises. He was obviously telling them to get moving. Wartoad managed to get himself free from the vent while Quickstrike started herding the other towards the door, discouraging their attempts to run with hissing and feints.

Scalpel turned to the bots he had in clamps. "Your presence is no longer required here. Have comfort in knowink your contribution helped pushed Cybertronian technology. Of course, you'll still make one last assistance: that my technorganic soldiers are as deadly as zey were designed to be." He hit another button that pulled the six Transformers up through the ceiling.

The gang were led down what was clearly a new tunnel. At one point, Matt heard what sounded like Meltdown yelling from behind a very thick containment door. "Guess Meltdown's not the master of this place anymore," said Matt smugly. Buzzsaw snarled and pushed him along. "Fine, fine. I'm moving, bug bot," he said.

The group was led outside to an area of the jungle that had been cleared away, probably originally to be a landing pad. Chloe nudged Matt and pointed to a vent that looked like something had torn it aside. Matt looked back at his captors and said, "So are you dumb animals gonna attack us or are you just waiting for the starting whistle."

"Hold yer horses, ya little varment," said Quickstrike in an unmistakably Texan accent, "The fun's gonna be startin' real soon."

"Gah...its talks!" said Chris, jumping back.

"Oh, we do much more than that," said Buzzsaw in a creepy voice.

Wartoad pushed himself up into what looked like a handstand at first until thumbs unfolded from his backfeet and heels popped out of his front feet. His head split in half at the jaw and swung back as the torso's top and bottom also split. The lower jaw ended up on Wartoad's new back while the upper jaw, his beast mode back, and beast mode underside ended up on his shoulders. Then a gruesome head with warts all over his face popped out of his chest.

"Eugh...not much of an improvement." said Chloe.

Quickstrike cackled madly as his back popped out and pivoted around to form an arm, with the scorpion tail mounted on the shoulder. His scorpion legs detached from the bottom as section along his stomach pivoted out to form an arm, with the scorpion legs forming long fingers. Then his cobra's hood split apart from his neck and head as extended down to form his new legs. Then the cobra's head and neck swung back to fill the empty space that the first arm left. Then a head that slightly resembled a gas mask popped out over the cobra's head that now formed his robot mode chest. "Howdy partners," said Quickstrike, "You ready to rip?"

Matt said, "That accent sucks."

Then Buzzsaw began to transform. His abdomen split along his sides until they detached, unfolded, and extended to form legs. Four of his wasp mode legs detached on another appendage to form the fingers on the right arm. His tail swung around to his left side and bent to form the long left arm. His wasp's head formed the chest as the antenna popped up on his insectoid robot mode head. "How sweet," crooned Buzzsaw as his left hand/pincer snapped, "Fresh meat."

Chloe glared, her own hand turning into its dragon form and crackling with electricity. "You can try," she said, dangerously.

"Oh believe me, I will, my dear," said Buzzsaw. He then showed how he got his particular name when he opened up his left pincer to extend out a pair of circular saws that started spinning.

Chloe glared and readied a blast. Scalpel sighed and said through the loud speakers, "Good grief...Just be gettink on vith it."

"Might as well start on the appetizers while we wait for the main course to arrive," said Buzzsaw before making a sweeping slice at the gang. Chloe and Matt, the targets, jumped back and threw their own energy blasts back at Buzzsaw, knocking him off his feet but otherwise not harming him.

"I like it when they fight back," said Quickstrike. The scorpion tail on his right shoulder pointed at the gang before firing small missiles before exploding that releasing highly combustible poisonous gas. The mercs barely got their masks down. Prowl and Sari meanwhile were trying to deal with Wartoad who was naturally a bit miffed over his usage as a vent plug.

Wartoad opened his mouth and snapped his tongue out at the two of them. "Ugh, he has a long tongue in robot mode too?" said Sari with disgust.

"It's the same tongue," said Wartoad, "All 40 feet and 3 inches of it."

Wartoad was about to tongue whip a rock at the two when said 'rock' grabbed his tongue. It was the large spiderbot. "ot oo ogai." managed Wartoad, his tongue stuck, before several dozen more spiderbots leapt out from various places. They had not enjoyed their flight through the air con system and now needed to vent their displeasure.

Meanwhile, Techo and Chris had gotten their blasters fixed on Quickstrike. "Back off, cowboy!" snapped Chris.

Quickstrike looked down at them and said, "So it's a shootout yer wantin'. Ok, I'm game." He grabbed his scorpion claws, which were handing off his waist, and detached them. He held them towards the two mercs as they adjusted to become handguns. "Let's see you dance!" said Quickstrike before firing poison blasts at them.

Chris and Techo managed to duck behind a rock and went pale as a piece of armor that Wartoad's attackers had removed, embedded between them. They turned slowly to see Wartoad trying to swat the laughing spiderbots that were tormenting him.

Quickstrike turned when he heard someone say, "I'd prefer to see you fly," and a plasma orb exploded in front of him, thrown by Matt who looked a bit annoyed.

The Krylock Transformer was thrown backwards by the blast. He shook his head and said, "What in tarnation was that?"

Matt strolled through the smoke. His NASA cap's brim was missing a significant slice. "Just little ol' me," he said in a sarcastic cowboy accent.

Quickstrike looked at Matt and asked, "How'd you shoot that? I don't see a gun in yer hand."

Matt smirked and Quickstrike noted that his teeth looked a bit sharper then the last time. "Who said I used a gun?" said Matt, bringing a taloned hand into view, holding a plasma orb.

"What the slag are ya?" asked Quickstrike. He wasn't scared, but he was certainly curious.

"Oh...someone who can open you up like a can of motor oil," said Matt, throwing a double blast of plasma from both hands.

Meanwhile, Buzzsaw was still focusing on Chloe. "Hold still, my pretty," said Buzzsaw, "I don't want to ruin that lovely skin before I take it off."

Chloe dodged another slash before the ground behind her opened up. Chloe quickly shifted to dragon mode and flew out of the way before Scalpel's former captives were ejected. Buzzsaw buzzed his wasp's wings and flew backwards a few feet to avoid being hit by the flying Cybertronians.

Buzzsaw then looked around, expecting to see Chloe on the ground, she having shifted so fast that he had not seen it properly. "Where are you, my dear?" he said before a mass slammed into his back, claws digging in.

"Here I am," hissed Chloe.

Buzzsaw looked at Chloe and said, "Ah, what pretty scales, what delicate wings. I don't think I shall skin you after all. I'll stick a pin through you and keep you in a glass case."

Chloe glared and opened her mouth, sending a lightning bolt at Buzzsaw which chose the techno-organic's blade as the path of least resistance. It was worth noting that not even a bio-machine can ignore 300,000 volts down the spine...not many things can. Buzzsaw jittered and shook as his body tried to deal with the massive overdose of electricity, but it eventually overloaded his processor and stunned him, at least temporarily.

Chloe landed and pushed Buzzsaw down the pit. "I hate wasps," she said, turning back to human.

However, she soon heard a buzzing sound coming from the pit and she looked to see Buzzsaw flying up in wasp mode. "Oh dear," he said, "I'm afraid you've gone and made me angry." His wings stopped beating for a second before they started spinning around. His tail's end split open to let out the buzz saws, but they went to the sides instead of forward. Then he folded his legs together, making him look like a wasp copter. "However, I see a bigger meal approaching," he said before flying towards Scalpel's former prisoners. Chloe rolled her eyes and turned back to dragon form, taking off after the wasp.

Blackarachnia broke the now deactivated clamps on her wrists off. "When I get that little tin..." she muttered before hearing a buzzing.

She looked up to see a wasp copter flying towards before it swooped down and changed to robot mode. Buzzsaw held the stinger on his left servo near Blackarachnia's neck. "Hello, what have we here?" he said. Buzzsaw looked at Blackarachia before saying, "I must say, you do look...delicious."

Blackarachnia would have attacked him, but she didn't dare move with Buzzsaw's stinger so close to her neck. Just then, a voice called, "Get away from her!" Buzzsaw turned in surprise in time to see Scorponok charge at him, knocking him flying and the pair rolling across the ground.

Buzzsaw growled as he got back up. "I don't like having my meals interrupted," he snarled.

"You're not preying on anyone today," said Scorponok as he got up and advanced towards Buzzsaw.

Just then, a vine lasso flew out and wrapped around Scorponok. He turned back to see Quickstrike holding the other end. "Hold on, partner," said Quickstrike, "Your dance is with me."

Quickstrike was about to start reeling his victim in when a sky blue dragon landed on his back and bit Quickstrike's shoulder. "Ptooi...bleh...you taste like meatloaf," said the dragon in Matt's voice.

"What in tarhoodies?" cried Quickstrike before saying, "Get off of me, you overgrown horsefly." His scorpion's tail started to stab at Matt.

Matt managed to dodge the tail before biting that one too out of draconic instinct. "Eaugh...that's worse," he said.

Quickstrike growled before changing back to his scorpion/cobra mode, which had the added bonus of throwing off Matt. "Now yer in trouble," growled Quickstrike, "Nobody bites my tail and gets away with it!"

Matt however ended up with a face full of dirt from his landing. This turned out to be a mixed blessing as he turned to Quickstrike on the threat...and sneezed and when a dragon sneezes, things in front of said dragon tend to know about it...the reactions more interesting for a start.

Quickstrike barely dodged the unintentional plasma orb. "You ain't the only one with nasty spit around here," said Quickstrike before spitting venom at Matt's eyes. Matt yowled as the venom went in his eyes and he staggered back blindly. Quickstrike smirked and said, "I wonder if you'll make some good boots?"

Before he could advance further, Scorponok stood in his path. "That was not very sportsbotlike," said Scorponok.

"Nobody got rich from playin' fair, partner." said Quickstrike, the two circling.

"I always thought that form couldn't be transformed," said Scorponok.

"Shows how much you know about Krylocks," said Quickstrike.

"What? Where?" said Matt, looking around blearily with his bloodshot eyes, still in dragon form.

"How do you know about what they're called?" asked Scorponok.

"Maybe if you didn't dump it when ya had it, you'd know a lot more about what yer up against," said Quickstrike.

"I faced Krylocks...they tend to go nuts at the drop of a hat..." said Matt, vaguely dizzily as the venom made him a bit drunk

"I've also fought Krylocks," said Scorponok, "I'm not afraid of them."

"Then you wouldn't be too scared to fight me, beast to beast," challenged Quickstrike.

"Cool," said Matt. The two Techo-organics turned and watched with interest as Matt's eyes crossed and he fell on his face, snoring in his dragon form.

"His sister will be less than pleased about what you did to him," said Scorponok.

"Ah, I ain't afraid of a little girl," said Quickstrike cockily.

Quickstrike was then sent into the air an inch as something...a growling something landed behind him. "What did you call me?" said a growling voice.

Quickstrike turned and looked at Chloe, who was in her dragon form. "Hoppin' horny toads, she's a horsefly too?" said Quickstrike.

Chloe's eyes glowed yellow and she bared her fangs. "HORSEFLY?" she roared and pounced on Quickstrike.

Scorponok winced as the technorganic Krylock got mauled by Chloe. "Er, I better go check on Blackarachnia," he said.

Meanwhile, Spittor and Blackout had been trying to sneak off while everyone else was busy. Unfortunately they were stuck in the robotic equivalent of a Mexican standoff as several dozen of the spiderbots were in front of them, staring. A couple of the spiderbots were behind them on a small ridge, trying to lever an extremely large section of rock onto the Decepticons and was the only reason the others had not yet attacked. However it was giving them some trouble.

Spittor thought slowly for a minute before saying, "Say, you remember what our original orders were, right?"

"Find Scalpel and drag him back to base?" said Blackout out of the corner of his mouth. Neither Decepticon was going to take their eyes off the bots.

"That's right. So why are we wasting our time up here when we should be heading back down and collecting him, all his pieces that is," said Spittor.

"Because if we move, they will too," said Blackout. He remembered how much trouble the original bots had caused on Cybertron to anyone dumb enough to go into an area they infested...and why was gravel landing on his head?

"Would you rather stand here and let them hurt us worse?" asked Spittor.

"What's that grinding noise?" said Blackout and the two looked up to see the spiderbots above them finally get the slab of rock move. "Oh no," said Blackout.

Luckily the slab of rock missed...but unluckily it caused the ground they were on to collapse, sending the rock and the Decepticons back into the lab, express style.

Scalpel watched the battle from his outside cameras. He felt very great pride that his warriors were proving themselves to be very powerful. However, he did notice when Blackout and Spittor fell back underground. "Hmm, I think it's time I changed," he said.

He clicked in a program into the computers, causing a fourth pod to light up. There was a crash not far down the corridor and Scalpel heard Blackout complaining about the 'slagging spiderbots' before a clang was heard...obviously the rock had caught up.

"Oh, I've vaited a long time for zis," said Scalpel. He hadn't bothered to scan Blackarachnia as he already compiled a program based on her stellar cycles ago but had been unable to find a way to use it on himself, until now. Scalpel looked as the pod opened up and the miniature decepticon looked at it for a second. For a second, he hesitated...after all, Blackarachnia might hate her form for a reason but he pushed such thoughts aside and climbed into the pod. "Now, I shall ze power of technorganics and my revenge," he said before the pod closed shut. It started to light up as it filled up with mist.

A minute later, Spittor and Blackout, the latter sporting yet another dent, came into the lab. "Scalpel? Where are you, you little pain in the servo?" yelled Blackout, now in a very bad mood.

"Look around," snapped Spittor, "That tiny pest can hide in a lot of places."

"Scalpel? I've been mauled, poisoned and had a 2 ton slab of granite land on my chest...GET OUT HERE!" yelled Blackout.

Then Spittor noticed the functioning pod. "Looks like he's trying to cook another flunky," he said.

"Let's put it out of its misery," said Blackout as he approached the pod with destruction on his mind.

There was a beep and about 20 plasma turrets folded out at snake-like speed to aim at them.

The two of them paused and back away. "Scalpel must have something special planned for this one," said Spittor.

The computer beeped and a female voice said, "Bio-organic nanites implanted. Program 'Scalpel' complete. Beginning revival."

"Scalpel's in there?" said Blackout with surprise.

"No way," said Spittor, "No sane bot would do that to themselves."

"Did Scalpel seem like he was firing on all motherboards when we last saw him?" pointed out Blackout as lock clamps on the pod disengaged.

The pod opened with an eerie creak as the mist rolled out. The two Team Charr members watched with anticipation for Scalpel to come out. But what came out instead was an enormous purple spider, which hissed loudly.

"Ooooh slag," said Spittor slowly.

Blackout added quietly, "Maybe it ate Scalpel?"

The spider turned to them and spoke in a familiar yet deeper voice. "Scalpel? Bah, zat vas ze name of a smaller, veaker bot. I am big, I am strong, I AM TARANTULAS!" Blackout wisely did not voice his thought that Scalpel was also now apparently crazy.

"Uh, you're coming back with us," said Spittor.

"I zink not," said 'Tarantulas', before spitting blasts of webbing at them.

The two Decepticons managed to dodge the webbing blasts before hiding round the corner in the corridor. "This is too weird. I say we report that Scalpel's offline," said Spittor.

"As far as you should be concerned, he is," said Tarantulas before slashing at him with his legs.

The two Decepticons were about to turn before Blackout spotted something else. "Erm...Scalpel?" he said.

"Zat's Tarantulas to you," snapped Tarantulas.

"Fine...don't say I didn't try to warn you." said Blackout, annoyed.

Tarantulas looked confused before hearing a whirring. "You have got to be kiddink me..." he said just before the spiderbots behind him attacked.

About this time, Bumblebee and Waspinator were waking up. Their ejection out of Scalpel's lab was not pleasant and they were both knocked out when they hit the walls of the pit.

"Wazpinator's head hurtz," moaned Waspinator before Chloe, in dragon form, landed in front of him with a crash, struggling with Quickstrike.

"What the slag is that?" asked Bumblebee.

Chloe managed to say, "Shoot him," while just managing to hold a claw away from her throat. Bumblebee noticed that Chloe was in danger so he activated his stingers and blasted the two of them. Chloe, being virtually an electricity elemental, was unharmed. The same could not be said for Quickstrike.

"Yow. You little..." began Quickstrike before juddering in place. He had made the mistake of taking his attention from Chloe who had just sent a bolt of electricity into his back.

Just then, Buzzsaw reappeared. "I've been looking for you," he said as he reached his right hand towards Chloe. He paused when he saw Bumblebee and Waspinator. "Well, well, what have we here?" he said, "Are these two of my three templates?"

Waspinator glared. "You steal from Wazpinator?" he said angrily.

Chloe, seeing a chance to help their team said innocently "Yes...I heard him confess."

Waspinator growled, "Wazpinator not like copycats. Wazpinator destroy hornetbot!"

Buzzsaw began to say, "What are you blabbering abou..." before Waspinator pounced on him.

Chloe looked at Bumblebee and said, "Sometimes...I love my job," as the two insectoid Techo-organics attempted to beat the hell out of each other.

Then Bumblebee paused and said, "Do you hear something banging?"

Chloe, who was watching Buzzsaw and Waspinator fight, said vaguely "Nope..."

"No, really, it sounds like it's coming from-" started Bumblebee before his sentence finished itself and Blackout and Spittor were re-ejected from the pit, followed by a giant purple spider.

The aforementioned purple spider was covered in spiderbots hitting him with, "Are those newspapers?" said Chloe, confused.

The purple spider shook itself as it tried to remove the spiderbots. "Get off me, you little pests!" it snapped.

One spiderbot began to ram his weapon into the spider equivalent of a nostril. "THIS IS DEAMINK...STOP IT!" snapped the new bot which just egged the spiderbots on.

"Wait a nanoklik," said Bumblebee, "Is that Scalpel?"

The spider glared at Bumblebee and said, "It's Tarantulas now, Autobot!"

Chloe was trying not to smirk. "You'd be more impressive without the spiderbots spraypaint art," she said.

"Vat?" asked Taratulas as he tried to crane his head back to see, but he couldn't quite see all of the spiderbots' spraypaint doodles, which mostly of his former self in humiliating positions, such being sat on by a hippo. It also included the spiderbots traditional message 'Da botz were ere'...and a bull's eye.

Taratulas growled and said, "I refused to be mocked any longer." His abdomen split apart as the lower part of it separated and unfolded to form legs. His mandibles and a large section of his underside also separated and unfolded to form arms with three fingered hands on the end, each with two blades on the wrists. His head and the back of his abdomen folded together to form a torso that had his eight spider legs on the back. Then his robot mode head popped out, which resembled his old head, only a bit larger and with more spider-like mandibles.

Tarantulas yelled out, "NOW, MY MINIONS, DESTROY...zem…" he said, his voice petering off when he saw that Wartoad was being beat up by the spiderbots and his other minions were out for the count. "Vell, I shall not be packed off so easily," he said before pointing his wrist blades at Techo and Chris. He proved they were more than melee weapons when a small part in the center of them shot out silk which covered them and soon proved itself to like elastic riot foam.

Chloe and Bumblebee charged Tarantulas and also got the same treatment. "When I get out of this..." she began before Tarantulas covered her muzzle.

Prowl and Sari noticed this and started to charge Tarantulas. "Leave them alone, you big bully," said Sari before throwing an energy orb at him.

Tarantulas narrowly dodged it and said, "Big, and don't you forget it," before punting her aside. When Prowl moved in to strike, Tarantulas surprised him by reaching out with his spider legs and stabbing him.

Buzzsaw finally managed to knock Waspinator down with a well aimed slash and pushed him off. "What a weird person," he commented before looking at Blackarachnia, "Sir? Do you mind if I deal with her myself? It's been so long since I last ate."

"No, I have other ideas for her. But keep ze Triple Changer avay from her for a few minutes," said Tarantulas.

Buzzsaw turned to see Scorponok. "As you wish, sir," said Buzzsaw and advanced on Scorponok

Scorponok had been busy tending to Blackarachnia. "Are you sure you're not injured?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," said Blackarachnia in an annoyed voice, "He didn't get a chance to do anything before you attacked him. You should be more worried about yourself."

Buzzsaw however interrupted by stabbing his buzzsaw into Scorponok's back. "You really should learn to stay alert," he taunted.

"Scorponok!" cried Blackarachnia.

"I'll be fine," said Scorponok, "Once I attend to this blackguard."

Buzzsaw smirked and brought both hands down on the sides of Scorponok's head, a stunning shot in any case. "Not that much of a fighter, are you?" taunted Buzzsaw.

"Perhaps, perhaps not," said Scorponok, "But I know I'm a better flyer." Scorponok shifted into his cobra jet mode and took off, taking along Buzzsaw who was too surprised to let go.

"What are you doing? You'll kill us both!" said Buzzsaw. He couldn't transform without letting go...and at this height, he would not change back in time. A fall like this would result in fatal system damage.

"Taking our battle to a safer place," said Scorponok before accelerating.

"You're clearly mad," said Buzzsaw, increasing his grip.

"Look who's calling the kettle black?" retorted Scorponok.

Blackarachnia watched as Scorponok took off with Buzzsaw. Then she heard a noise behind her and turned to see another spider-like robot. "I alvays vanted to command my own troops," said the bot, "Zey be down for now, but zey show excellent progress."

"They'll turn on you. Waspinator nearly killed me shortly after I created him...then he exploded," said Blackarachnia.

"I zink not," said Tarantulas, "Unlike you, I did not trick zem into becoming vat zey are for the purpose of using zem as guinea pigs. I created zem to be my minions and partners and zey get to do vat zey vant. As for ze transvarp overload, I fixed zat little problem. Othervise, I vouldn't use it on myself."

"You're mad. It's unpredictable," said Blackarachnia.

"So zey say..." said Tarantulas before spinning his head around, producing a blubbering sound. As soon as he stopped, he said, "By ze vay, vat do you zink of my new body?"

"It suits you. Now you look as twisted as your mind was," said Blackarachnia.

"Oh, I thought you vould approve of zis," said the bot, lifting Blackarachnia's chin with one of his claws, "I vould have thought you'd be so lonely as beink ze only technorganic spiderbot."

"You are sick if you think I would even think of you like that...or think of you at all," said Blackarachnia nastily.

"But who else vould have you? From what I heard, your old boyfriend vasn't zat pleased ven he saw you again." Tarantulas laughed nastily at that.

Blackarachnia's eyes narrowed. "Back off, you pervert," she said with a hiss.

Tarantulas sighed and said, "Oh vell, I'm sure you'll see reason in time. However, I suggest you take ze first step now. Soon, I and my troops vill be leavink zis planet. You vould be vise to join us. Zere's alvays room among ze Predacons for more."

Blackarachnia glared. "Not a chance," she said.

There was a whirring noise from the large mass of silk that contained the spiderbots, before a laser cut it open and the spiderbots swarmed out, looking for blood...or motor oil before looking at Tarantulas and charging.

Tarantulas shot another blast of silk at the spiderbots before saying, "Please reconsider. You don't really vant to be stuck on zis planet, do you? Ze Autobots von't allow you back and few Decepticons are as understandink as I. Who else vould vant you as a sparkmate?"

"Anyone's better than a conniving shrimp like you, Scalpel," snapped Blackarachnia.

Tarantulas' eyes blazed before he plunged his claws into Blackarachnia and hissed, "My name is Tarantulas." A laser blast hit the claw he had used and he turned to see the rest of the spiderbots...at least 150 of them, heading for him.

Tarantulas glared at them and turned to Blackarachnia, "You vill regret zis decision. Even if you decide to change sides, you reception shall not be pleasant." He then called out, "Predacons, fall back!" Then he apparently disintegrated and warped away. The same happened to Wartoad and Quickstrike. Buzzsaw however was having trouble with his. It's not easy to activate a teleporter when you're going at close to MACH 3.

"Let me help," said Scorponok before barrel-rolling until Buzzsaw was thrown off.

Buzzsaw yelped. "You pay for thaaaaat!" he called back, luckily activating his teleporter before he had an intimate meeting with the ground.

Scorponok flew down to the ground and transformed to robot mode before landing. "Well, he wasn't that hard to-" he started before he noticed Blackarachnia clutching her side. "Blackarachnia, are you alright?" he asked, running over to her.

"I'm ok...just got blindsided," winced Blackarachnia.

"You're hurt," said Scorponok, "We need to get you to safety."

Blackarachnia said, "Your pals are in need of help more than me," pointing to the others.

Scorponok looked at the others and said, "You're right. But after them, you get treated next. No arguing."

Blackarachnia sighed, "Ok...now go be a hero."

Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake. "Please tell me that's a real earthquake this time," said Blackarachnia.

Scorponok said, "I don't think so...that sounds like an ion engine powering up," as the rumble became a whine.

Sari turned to look as the ground started to lift up. "I think he made more improvements to Meltdown's lab than we thought," she said.

Matt looked around weakly. "Why is the ground shaking?" he said, his vision still not fully returned.

Just then, the ground broke open as hunks of metal sprouted out as the sound of engines warming up filled the air.

A large ship slowly hovered up out of the hole, the engines glowing as they readied a jump.

Waspinator heard the sound of the engines warming up and knew it meant trouble. However, Buzzsaw had damaged him to the point that he couldn't move his limbs. Then he saw Spittor and Blackout running. "Friends, Wazpinator needs help!" called Waspinator.

"Sorry, bud," said Spittor.

Blackout said, "Every Decepticon for himself." Blackout transformed and took off, while Spittor transformed and hung onto Blackout with his tongues.

"Helibot! Hopperbot! Come back!" yelled Waspinator. Waspinator yelled wordless anger at the fleeing Decepticons before someone grabbed his legs and started dragging him along. "Who dragging Wazpinator?" he said before going 'Ow' as his head bounced off a rock on the floor.

"Hey, you don't want to be left here to get slagged by those engines, do you?" said Bumblebee's voice.

"Wazpinator not want Bumblebot's help..." said Waspinator before the idiocy of that comment penetrated even his paranoia. "Wazpinator willing to let Bumblebot help once," he said loftily.

"Glad I have your approval," said Bumblebee.

"Everyone hold still!" yelled Scorponok before concentrating. The air around him began to fluxuate and turn red. The area spread around him until it encompassed the others. Then with a flash of red light, they all disappeared.

Matt gibbered shortly after he re-appeared. "Uuuugh." he said weakly.

"Scorponok, how did you-" started Blackarachnia before Scorponok groaned and fell over.

Blackarachnia ran over to him. "Scorponok," she said, worriedly before a rumble got everyone's attention. The ship opened up a jump portal and vanished into it.

"Well, they're gone," said Chloe, once she got out of the web.

"But I have a feeling we'll see them again," said Sari before pausing and said, "You know, I think we're forgetting something that's related to this."

The gang were forgetting something. Meltdown and Colossus were still wandering around the sealed-off sector of their base. "I'm telling you, boss. We've been past that extinguisher 6 times already," said Rhodes.

"Don't be foolish," said Meltdown, "It's not like the walls have been moving around us."

"Are you sure about that? I thought a wall was singing earlier," said Rhodes.

"Cyrus, I've spent months in this place. I know it like the back of my glove," said Meltdown, "Besides, only we have access to the wall-moving mechanism."

"You sure about that?" said Rhodes, looking around.

"I'm positive. No one else is in the base but us and those robots in the trap," said Meltdown. Just then, the room started shaking. "What was that?" asked Meltdown. The walls appeared to shift before a new hatch opened. "But how? I locked the system myself," said Meltdown.

Rhodes looked out the new porthole and said, "Uh, boss? I think you'll wanna take a look at this."

Meltdown walked to the window and looked out. Outside, he saw a massive swirl of flying color. The color soon disappeared, revealing what appeared to be a starry night sky, only there was no ground at all in sight, or anything else for that matter. "What happened to my lab?" said Meltdown in horror.

"I don't think it's just a lab anymore," said Rhodes.

Sometime later, Techo and Chris headed back to where the entrance to Meltdown's former lab was. They were pretty surprised to see the Autobots all beaten up. "What happened?" asked Techo.

"That little creep got us, that's what happened," said Ratchet, "The cycle you were all gone, he turned and attacked us."

"What little creep? Xenobyte?" said Matt.

Ratchet looked confused. "We're over here!" he yelled.

"Don't mind him," said Chloe, "He got a little blinded with cobra venom earlier. So...where did he go?"

"Don't know," said Bulkhead, "He just said 'I've got what I've came for' and ran off."

"Ah great...he probably got the magical pink elephant. He was totally stoned," said Chris.

"I don't think so," said Optimus, "He didn't seem addled when he attacked us. I think he was pretending when he followed you guys and waited until you were gone before he attacked us."

Matt glared, sadly at a wall. "When I see him again..." he said.

Just then, WARDEN's voice came through his comm. "Sir, I picked up on that large spacecraft exiting Earth's atmosphere. It apparently used transwarp drives to go through hyperspace. Apparently, it's on the other side of the galaxy now."

"Great...WONDERFUL...can this day get any worse?" said Matt, annoyed before walking into a wall.

"Should I mention that the Imperial cruiser has also left Earth?" asked WARDEN.

Matt moaned from the floor and Chloe said, "Let's leave that for another day, WARDEN."

Since Meltdown's lab was no longer a present concern, the gang decided to pack up and head back to Detroit. Matt had called ahead and half his crew was waiting to 'greet' Waspinator upon arrival. "Not that we don't trust you but you switch sides so fast your symbol should be on a revolving panel," said Matt.

"Fleshies poor hosts," retorted Waspinator, "Fleshies treat Wazpinator badly, so Wazpinator wanted to leave fleshies."

"Fleshies treat Wazpie bad cause Wazpie wanna squish fleshies," said Matt, sarcastically before Chloe slapped the back of his head.

"He does have a point," said NegaMorph, "You've been zapping him for even the slightest offenses."

"From what I hear, he's had it coming," said Matt, before Chloe slapped him again.

"Just give the guy a break, he's been through a lot," said Bumblebee.

"Well...what should we do with Mr. Paranoia?" said Matt.

"I think we should go on with Lilo's NON-disciplinary treatment program," said NegaMorph.

"Only if we disable his weapons," said Matt.

"Agreed," said NegaMorph.

"Ok, then get him loaded for... Ew..." Matt paused when he spotted Jumba and Pleakley. Pleakley looked incredibly bloated and Matt could hear him squishing with each step.

Chris said weakly, "What the hell?"

"It would appear local species of mosquito have substance in their saliva which Pleakley has severe allergic reactions to in large doses," said Jumba.

"I itch all over," moaned Pleakley.

"Oh...just go..." said Matt, turning a funny color as his visual mind rebelled.

Meanwhile, Ratchet was less than pleased about the condition that Scorponok and Blackarachnia came back in. "I don't believe you two. You were meant to be going for a walk. Not into a damn firefight," ranted Ratchet as he checked their various scratches and damage, adding, "Especially with your damage…" looking at Scorponok.

"Well, I didn't really ask to become Scalpel's guest," said Scorponok, wincing as Ratchet fingered the wounds he got from Buzzsaw.

"Decepticons don't call ahead," said Ratchet, annoyed.

"Don't I know it, ah, ah, easy," said Scorponok as Ratchet sprayed disinfectant on him.

"If you wanted to avoid this, you should have stayed away from that maniac," grumbled Ratchet.

Blackarachnia glared. "Watch it, old bot. There's no way we could have known Scalpel was there."

Ratchet looked at her and said, "You're not in much of a position to talk, young lady. You're not unscathed either." He examined the wound in her side with one of his probes. "If that had been an inch higher we wouldn't be talking." he said annoyed.

"Tarantulas didn't want me dead yet," said Blackarachnia before hissing with pain and biting back a swear.

"Well, it looks like the two of you will get plenty of time getting to know each other now," said Ratchet, "Cause neither of you are leaving my infirmary, cabin fever or not."

Ratchet actually smirked when Scorponok said, "I don't think you could stop us."

Ratchet said, "I can't...but they can," pointing to several spiderbots in the doorway.

The really disturbing part was that some of them were wearing nurse's cap and were holding tools such as hypodermic needles, defribulators, and rather invasive-looking probes. "Nurses on call!" said one and the rest giggled in the disturbing way of their kind. One, who had chosen the wrong kind of nurse was holding what looked like a hybrid of a jackhammer and a dentist's drill.

"Who authorized those guys?" asked Scorponok weakly.

"Oh, I did," said Matt, walking around the corner, "I've got plenty to spare and I owe Ratchet for him fixing up Serina."

Matt looked down at the spiderbots who parted to let him by. "If they try to escape...cut their legs off," he said and the spiderbots all looked as one to look at them.

"This is cruel and unusual punishment," said Scorponok.

"That's what Gary said," said Matt absently. Blackarachnia started to move and stopped as there was a cluster of whirrings as the spiderbots moved forward at the same time. "Yeah, I'd just stay here until the good doctor here says you're ready to go," said Matt.

Blackarachnia narrowed her eyes and said, "Chloe came up with this, didn't she?"

"Mmm... maybe," said Matt as he walked towards the door, "I've got some other things to do now. Have fun here with your boyfriend." The two Techo-Organics started making various denials as Matt walked round the corner.

As Matt walked out of sight, Scorponok made the mistake off swinging his legs of the bed he was on. Matt heard several spiderbots lunge and one yell 'CLEAR!' followed by a buzzing. Matt grinned and said, "I love messing with minds."

* * *

There's another chapter up. This one took quite a bit of editing to get done. As you can see, there's been quite a bit of character development here, not to mention character introduction. We know Scalpel from before, but now he's become this universe's Tarantulas. His new henchmen are based off of Beast Wars characters as well. Quickstrike's obviously based off his namesake, only with a slightly different beast mode. Wartoad's pretty much like Transmetal 2 Spittor, but without the potential vulgarity in his name. Buzzsaw's a bit more complex. He's more largely based off of his Beast Machines toy, which is presumably the same character as his Beast Wars toy. The helicopter additions a reference to the Buzzsaw from Transformers: Cybertron, who was a helicopter on Velocitron. And yes, Meltdown and Colossus Rhodes have been abducted by aliens. Bet you never saw that coming. Anyways, more chapters will be coming up as soon as finals are over. So keep an eye out and please review.


	11. Around the Galaxy in 80 Minutes

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 11: Around the Galaxy in 80 Minutes**

One of the most important things in life is being able to relax. Many people take up games to help ease the stress of their lives. Of course, some people might choose to 'spice up' the game for some more fun.

In the case of Matt, he preferred to cause minor cases of mayhem so he'd sneaked into the space bridge area and was re-enacting an old favorite scene from a show he liked.

The gate was powered up, unfathomable power that could send you to the universe next door...and a golf ball shot into it.

"Nice shot," said Matt as Techo lowered his gold club, "Kinda hard to believe this stuff was just collecting dust in Isaac's closet."

"Yeah, he needs to get out more," said Techo.

"How far is Cybertron?" asked NegaMorph, who was also joining in and was readying his own shot. "About 3000 billion miles, I think," said Matt, adding, "That's gotta be some kinda record."

"Ya sure it's set to dat place?" asked Dune Runner.

"Actually, I set it at random," said Matt, "What's the worst that could do?"

In accordance with Murphy's law, the other end of the portal appeared behind Sentinel Prime's head on Cybertron for a second...just long enough for the golf ball to shoot out and bounce off his head.

"What was that?" demanded Sentinel, spinning around.

"What was what?" asked Jetfire.

"Something hit me, I think it may have been some sort of Decepticon projectile," said Sentinel. Suddenly, another transwarped golf ball hit him on the head. "There it is again!" shouted Sentinel.

"I do not see anything," said Jetstorm.

Finally, before the portal closed, what looked like a small grenade rolled through.

Meanwhile, Matt was teeing up for his next shot. "Stand back, this one's gonna go all the way to Alpha Centauri," said Matt.

The lift up to the roof where the space bridge was located suddenly opened and Chloe walked out, looking very annoyed. "MATTHEW JAMES LYNCH. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" she yelled.

Matt shot Chloe an annoyed looked and yelled, "In the middle of my backswing?"

Chloe glared. "For heaven's sake...of all the stupid...GYAAAH!" she said angrily.

The lift opened up again, allowing the Autobots to walk onto the roof. "The space bridge isn't a toy," said Bulkhead in an annoyed voice, "It's a very complicated machine that could tear apart time and space over all of Michigan."

"Besides, it's supposed to be used for important things," said Optimus, "Such as finding Omega Supreme."

"So? This was a stress test," said Matt.

Chloe glared and said, "You really expect us to believe that tripe?" (gotta reset msn

"Hey, not all of our balls go through the space bridge," said NegaMorph, "We shoot a couple off the side of the tower."

"I know, that's how I found out about this," said Chloe, rubbing a spot on her head. NegaMorph gulped at this.

"Fine, hey, Techo, shut it down," said Matt with a sigh.

Techo sighed and muttered, "Spoilsport," before going over to the control panel and shutting down the space bridge.

Matt rolled his eyes at Chloe, "Come on...it's not like it'll overcharge if we just touch it."

Chloe said nastily, "You mean like ignoring a 'do not touch' sign in a museum?"

Matt glared and said, "There's no need to bring that up."

"Dat's alright, Matt," said Dune Runner, "I was planning on hitting this next ball away from de bridge anyways."

He walked over to the tee and set his ball down. However, this ball was actually a curled-up Morph. "Thanks for letting me be your golf ball," said Morph.

The others stared at this. "How did you convince him?" said Chloe in a small voice.

"I didn't, he asked me to," said Dune Runner, testing his club, "Now remember Morph; be de ball."

"Right," said Morph, before going into a slightly yoga-like position, "I am a golf ball. I am a golf ball. Oh, what a golf ball I am." Inexplicably, his body assumed the shape of a golf ball just before Dune Runner hit him, sending Morph up into the sky.

"I kinda wanted ta do dat," said Dune Runner.

Techo sighed. "Crap...we'd best make sure he doesn't land on anyone," he said'

Meanwhile, above the clouds, a stealth plane was flying over the tower. It paused for a second before shifting its parts to form a robot mode. "I knew I'd find that ghost pilot here somewhere," said Nightbird, "And without that mech or those prehistoric throwbacks, this will be a lot easier." Nightbird was scanning when her sound systems picked up a noise rapidly getting louder, sounding for all the world like someone going 'WHEEEEEE'. She turned to the sound going "What in the...?" before Morph splatted on her face.

Back on Sumdac Tower, the Lynch siblings' argument was put aside when they heard the sound of a spiraling jet. They looked up to see a flying robot go spiraling out of the clouds above and crashland on a nearby building. "I think you just blindsided some passing Decepticon, now what?" said NegaMorph.

"Play through," said Dune Runner.

Nightbird and Morph were both screaming on the way down for a terminal meeting with the local tarmac, Nightbird's screams along the lines of 'GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE PEST!'

"Nice shot."

Chloe turned around to see the technorganics watching. "How long have you been here?" she demanded.

"They invited us to watch them hit those golf balls at Sentinel Prime," said Scorponok, "It was a good opportunity to get some fresh air."

Chloe turned to glare at Techo who said innocently, "Hey, I wasn't in on this. Though it might explain why Matt's 'balls' were thermite grenades."

"I thought you said it was set at 'random'," said Dune Runner accusingly at Matt.

"Oh...I forgot," said Matt with a faint smile.

"Wazpinator not complaining," buzzed Waspinator, "Wazpinator liked seeing sarge-bot getting hit on head."

Chloe looked at the box that the grenades had been in. "You haven't used them all," she said.

Matt smirked, "The last one wasn't a grenade."

Sentinel was nursing the several dents and scorchmarks on his head. "I'm telling you, it was Decepticons," said Sentinel, "They've been trying to assassinate me."

Jetfire picked up one of the objects. "I think it's from earth...they call it a...'golf ball'."

Sentinel Prime glared at a slightly larger ball and stomped on it. "Don't be silly, soldier. How could a bunch of golf balls get all the way to Cybertron, let alone attack my head?" said Sentinel, "I want these studied so we can prepare a proper defense against them."

Suddenly Sentinel felt something pushing at his foot. He stepped back to see the ball he had stamped on folding out several metallic legs and looking up at him, angrily. "Squishy?" it said in a worryingly high pitched voice.

Sentinel let out an even more high-pitched scream and jumped away from it. "What is that?" asked Jetstorm.

The spiderbot spun to look at Jetstorm and plated a sound byte of Sylvester Stallone saying 'Your worst nightmare'

Jetfire looked at his brother in confusion and said, "This is worst nightmare?"

"Does not look as tough as prehistoric bots on Earth," said Jetstorm.

"Keep that thing away from me!" shouted Sentinel.

The spiderbot looked at JetStorm and seemed to crouch down. "What is it-" started Jetstorm before the spiderbot jumped up onto Jetstorm's face.

"Hold still, brother, I will get it," said Jetfire before shooting a fire blast at Jetstorm.

The spiderbot seemed to be hit...till the smoke cleared and all it looked was pissed off. "Naughty," it said, extending a nozzle that fired what looked like extinguisher foam...till it set rock hard.

"Get rid of that spiderbot, that's an order!" shouted Sentinel Prime. The spiderbot stared at Sentinel for a few moments before it started making a beeping sound. Sentinel said worriedly, "What is it doing now?" He found out exactly what it was doing when 30 of the local population of spiderbots swarmed in through various vents, windows and at one point, the floor. "Uh, n-n-nice spiderbots," said Sentinel before letting another scream as they all jumped on him.

Meanwhile, the Deception that Morph had splatted upon was still trying to remove him. Unfortunately, it was still trying to fly while doing so. Morph, to his credit was giving directions. While he could survive hitting a building, it always took ages to get the dent out. "JUST GET OFF ME!" screamed Nightbird finally. It was worth noting that Morph was not the best person to ask for any direction at all.

"Oh, ok," said Morph, hopping off of Nightbird's face on top of her helmet. However, she got her vision back just in time to see she was about to made a bad landing on top of Sumdac Tower. "Oh...dammit," said Nightbird glumly just before impact.

The gang quickly scattered as the ninja bot skidded along the surface before coming to a stop at the base of the space bridge. Matt and Chloe were the first to snap out of the shock of the crash, shifting to their Avalar dragon forms to pin the Decepticon. The others all aimed weapons of choice. "I say again, dammit," said Nightwing.

"Isn't that Nightbird?" asked Blackarachnia.

"Definitely," said Scorponok, "I fought with her a few weeks ago when she was going after Matt for his ghost pilot bounty."

Matt peered down so Nightbird got an uncomfortably close up of his dragon form's fangs. "I thought I recognized this one. I've always wanted to see if I can bite through metal," he said evilly.

Nightbird glared at Matt and said, "Consider yourself lucky that bounty requires you being alive."

Matt smirked as Chloe dug her claws in at the threat against her brother. "I say we send her back to her buddies...in installments."

"My, my, someone's in a bad pickle, aren't they?" Everyone turned around to see the purple Transformer with the horned helmet leaning against the space bridge control panel. "What? You didn't expect me today either?" asked Sideways mockingly.

Matt glared. "I was hoping to see you again. I wanna try to decapitate you again," he said, taking off to lunge at Sideways, sadly meaning that Nightbird could get a little loose.

Sideways seemed to smirk under his mouthguard before reaching back and hitting a button on the control panel. "Whoops, clumsy me," said Sideways as the space bridge started up. Matt yelped as he was pulled back like he was on an extendable lead, digging his claws into the ground but only leaving furrows behind. "I suggest you enjoy your ride while you can," said Sideways, "I hear landing on a white dwarf is quite unpleasant."

"Matt, grab on!" shouted Optimus, shooting his grappling line towards Matt.

The line hit the ground just in front of Matt and he grabbed for it and found out unfortunately that while he probably couldn't bite through metal, his claws could cut through grapple line like it was silly string. "Ah bugger," he said simply.

"Sorry pal, no luck this time," laughed Sideways.

"Why you big jerk!" shouted Dune Runner. The panels on his rail opened up to reveal blasters, which he used to shoot at Sideways.

Sideways yelped and dodged the blasts. However the gate's control console didn't dodge and the blasts tore it apart. "Nice shooting, tex," taunted Sideways.

"It's sucking more," roared Matt, a bit panicky.

Suddenly, the prongs of the space bridge started sparking and the portal in the middle started vibrating. "That's not good," said Techo before the portal grew even larger and its gravity pull increased.

Nightbird suddenly noticed a scraping noise and noticed that the scenery was moving...backwards. Chloe also noticed when she began to be moved as well. The portal's pulling field had expanded enough to grab them, despite the fact that Chloe's dragon form and Nightbird were not that light.

"Oh, not good, not good, not good," said Chloe as she tried to get away from the portal.

"Chloe, hang on," called Prowl. He activated the jets on his armor and flew over to her.

Unfortunately, with a dragon form comes dragon instincts and as Prowl swooped in, Chloe's instinct to fly out of range kicked in. Chloe tried to flap her wings and get clear. But just as she was moving away from Nightbird, Prowl came in. Chloe's movement threw off his telemetry and he ended up crashing into her and then Nightbird. Then the three of them got sucked into the space bridge's portal. Matt, who was desperately holding on watched in horror as Chloe vanished.

Chloe wasn't the only who was being pulled in. Morph's hold on the roof just came loose and he was hurling towards the space bridge when Dune Runner grabbed him. He then switched to vehicle mode to try and outdrive the gravitation pull, a maneuver that Bumblebee was also doing.

However, Waspinator was bound with stasis cuffs and he was only hanging on was grabbing a pipe with his mandibles. However, pipes can only hold so much weight before they do what just happened, which was bid farewell to the wall with the screech of breaking metal.

"Wazpinator doez not want to tranzwarp!" shouted Waspinator as he was being pulled into the space bridge.

"Wasp!" called Bumblebee as he transformed and jumped up to grab him, only for both him and Waspinator to start flying towards the portal.

"Hang on, guys!" called Dune Runner as he took off and flew after them into the portal.

Sideways was laughing his head off. "Oh, this is classic. I wish I had a camera."

Scorponok was holding onto the roof, his pincers proving effective in keeping place. However, Blackarachina's grip wasn't nearly as secure. "I'm slipping!" she called as she started to lose her grip.

"Blackarachnia!" called Scorponok and he let go with one servo to grab her. But that made his grip slip too. Using his last bit of leverage, Scorponok threw Blackarachnia over the side of Sumdac Tower. Blackarachnia managed to fire a silk shot that latched into the wall and saving her from an unfortunate meeting with the ground.

Scorponok was sent tumbling back towards the portal. Unfortunately, he bumped into Matt, making him lose his last grip. Matt yelped as the steel plate he was holding tore loose and sent him flying back with Scorponok into the portal.

"Matt! Scorponok!" called Optimus. He pulled out his axe and activated its thruster, pushing himself towards them. He used his other grappler to wrap it around Scorponok's tail, but he ended up being pulled in with him.

Surprisingly, this did not please Sideways. "No! That isn't what I want!" he growled before jumping in after them.

The Space Bridge was now getting more powerful, sucking in pieces of the tower. Bulkhead managed to pull his way over to the power feed for the bridge and pulled the relay out, causing the Space Bridge to deactivate.

Chris gave a sigh of relief and said, "I hope Sentinel won't mind that much company."

"I don't think that they were sent to Sentinel," said Bulkhead as he went over to what was left of the control console. It could put an image up on the cracked screen. "It's just as I thought," said Bulkhead, "When Dune Runner blasted it, it deleted the receiving signal. Now they could be anywhere in the galaxy."

Chris gulped "If Chloe dies, she'll find a way to come back to get us for this," he said weakly.

"I might be able to get them back if their transwarp energy doesn't wear off before I can get this console fixed," said Bulkhead, "And that's gonna take a while."

"Oh lord...what if Matt DID go to Cybertron?" said Techo in a horrified voice.

Chris just plugged his ears, "I don't wanna hear it..."

When the bright blue light faded, Matt found himself in a room that was made of mostly a yellow-orange metal. He staggered up to his feet and shook his head before falling down, a bit dazed. "I don't wanna go to school today," he gibbered. His state could be noted by the fact that when he had arrived, the steel plate he had brought had impacted with his head.

Scorponok, however, had landed in an awkward position and was having a bit of trouble getting back up. "Um, could you, I think I, oh, never mind," said Scorponok before transforming into his scorpion mode and get back upright.

Optimus got up and looked around. "I wonder where the Transwarp deposited us?" he asked before he and Scorponok jumped as Matt said dizzily, "We're in Candy mountain."

The two Autobots stared at Matt for a second before Scorponok said, "Seriously, where are we?"

Optimus looked around and said, "I believe we're inside Omega Supreme."

Matt looked around "Ooooh...shiiiny…" before concussion finally caused him to pass out.

"Wait a second," said Scorponok, "I thought you said that Omega Supreme was caught in a nonstop transwarp loo-" He was cut off when everything glowed blue and lurched around before settling down again.

Matt had ended up against the far wall, luckily his dragon form preventing being squished...this was lucky as Scorponok had accidentally used Matt to break his fall.

"I have a feeling that's going to happen every few minutes," said Optimus.

Scorponok got up unsteadily and Matt slumped down behind him. "I hurt," he rasped.

Optimus scratched his head and said, "Perhaps I should wait until you two are steady before I tell you the bad part."

Matt said, "What's so bad? You've been looking for this for ages, now you've found it. Where is 'bad'?"

"Because Megatron is on this ship as well," said Optimus.

Matt gulped "Are we talking 'Megatron' as the same guy who sent Lockdown after me?" he said.

"Yes, Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons," said Optimus.

Matt gulped. "Oh hell," he said weakly, cringing under his wings.

Meanwhile, Dune Runner and Morph reappeared in what appeared to be a dark alley in some city. "Oh, dat was a crazy trip," said Dune Runner.

Morph looked around. "I've had weirder," he said before waddling out to where the alley joined the main street to peer out.

"Uh, Dune, you're not gonna believe this," said Morph.

"What is it?" asked Dune Runner. Dune walked up to peer out and see dozens of Cybertronians walking around. "I'm guessing we're not on Earth anymore," said Dune Runner.

Just then, a nearby grate rattled. Morph and Dune looked at each other before walking over. "Hey! Is anyone up there?" cried a familiar voice.

Morph remembered Matt mentioning that the spiderbots had come from Cybertron. "Is that a spiderbot?" he asked.

"No, it's me, Bumblebee!" called the voice, "Is that Morph and Dune Runner up there?"

Morph said, "I think so..."

"What are ya doing down there?" asked Dune Runner.

"I think we were too far apart when we transwarped," said Bumblebee, "I think me and Wasp are stuck in the sewers."

Waspinator's voice echoed up, "Wazp is getting feeling that he is being watched."

"Well, the grate's too small for us to use," said Dune Runner, "Except maybe Morph, but I'm not sure how he can get you out."

Morph said "Guys?" as a horde of spiderbots charged by carrying Sentinel Prime's screaming head.

"Not now, Morph," said Dune Runner, "We need to get some help if we wanna get them outta there." "Oh, by the way, you might wanna put a disguise on Morph," called Bumblebee, "Organics aren't popular on Cybertron."

Morph shrugged and watched with mild comparison as the spiderbots carried Sentinel Prime away, the unfortunate head screaming something about 'NOT THE FACE!'

"Hmm... a disguise," said Dune Runner thoughtfully, his eyes looking around the alley until he spotted a dumpster. "Aha!" he cried, before picking up Morph and heading to the dumpster.

Morph yelped as he was picked up. "Erm...what's your plan?" he said.

"Just work with me," said Dune Runner before grabbing some scrap metal from the dumpster. He quickly started bending it and sticking onto Morph. In a few seconds, Morph was armored up like a pillbug. "If anyone asks, you're a space slug with de brain of a parrot," said Dune Runner.

"Uh?" said Morph, confused.

Waspinator's voice came out, saying, "WAZPINATOR SEE SPIDERS!"

"Just try to seem boring to them," said Dune Runner, "We'll come back for you as soon as we can."

Morph said, "Is this a bad time to say I think Matt didn't just use grenades in golf?"

"He mentioned something like that, but we've got no time for that," said Dune Runner. The two walked out into the street and Dune noticed that the Cybertronians he had seen earlier looked a bit worried. "Eh, don't mind me pet, he's harmless, just really annoying," said Dune Runner.

"Pieces of eight." said Morph.

"He's cuckoo too," said Dune Runner.

Morph muttered, "I thought you said to be a parrot, not a cuckoo?"

"Just let me do de talking," muttered Dune Runner.

Morph said, "Polly want a cracker?" pointing desperately.

Dune Runner noticed a few Autobots with bodies kinda like Ratchet's except white were approaching. "Oh well, I suppose we best keep moving," said Dune Runner before transforming and driving off. Morph managed to jump on Dune Runner just before he drove off.

Meanwhile, Chloe was finding that transwarp travel was not agreeing with her.

"Urgh...let me off this ride before I barf a few thousand volts," she groaned.

"Not on me you don't," said Nightbird, pushing Chloe towards Prowl.

"Tell me we're landing soon," said Chloe, shimmering into her half dragon form.

"Should be about..." started Prowl before the three of them were abruptly dropped onto solid ground, "...now." Chloe put her taloned hand over her mouth and ran round a corner.

Prowl got up and dusted himself off. "While we wait for Chloe to recover, we better check where we are," he said.

Chloe came back, looking pale. "I think we landed in Canada. Lotsa forest and stuff...oh...and we're on the edge of a cliff."

Nightbird looked around and said, "This place looks...familiar somehow."

Chloe seemed to remember Nightbird and shifted back into full dragon before pinning her, "You pain in the butt. How much did that Sideways creep pay you?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," said Nightbird.

Chloe glared at her. "Huh...and why should I believe a word that comes out your speakers?" she said.

"I know every Decepticon that's still active in this arm of the Milky Way, and I've never heard of one named Sideways," said Nightbird, "Ninja's honor."

"I have been wondering about Sideways myself," said Prowl, "I couldn't find anyone by that name on the Cybertronian Datanet, Autobot or Decepticon."

Chloe glared at Nightbird before letting her up and shrinking back down to her human form. "I still don't trust you," she said.

"Wise choice," said Nightbird, "Now, if you can still fly, I think I can find a place where we can transwarp back to."

Chloe shifted back to dragon form. "You try anything and I will tear out your fiber optic cables one wire at a time," she snarled.

Nightbird smirked and said, "You'll have to be pretty fast to do that. Especially with a hole in your neck." Chloe looked down to see that Nightbird had one of her sais nearly touching her neck.

Chloe suddenly grinned, despite her situation and managed to say "I could say the same thing to you."

Nightbird followed Chloe's gaze to see Prowl had his own blade pointed at her neck. "That will be enough," said Prowl sternly. Nightbird reluctantly lowered her sai blade and Chloe removed her claws from the threatening position they were in. Prowl said, "We have no idea where we are or even if we are alone. This is not the time to fight each other."

"He's right," said Chloe, "We can go for each other's throats once we're back on Earth."

Nightbird glared and said, "Yes...I can wait to deal with you."

Meanwhile, Matt was trying not to panic about the fact that he was now stuck on the same ship with the same bot that had put a sizeable bounty on his head and has a mean streak as long as a comet's tail. He wasn't succeeding. "I'MDEADI'MDEADI'MDEAD!" he was screaming, gibbering to himself.

"Matt, calm down," said Optimus, "We're not going to let Megatron hurt you, right, Scorponok?"

Matt looked at Scorponok before screaming again.

Optimus sighed and said, "Look, I know Megatron has a bad reputation and the power to back it up, but-" he paused as Omega Supreme transwarped again before continuing, "He's not completely invincible. Besides, there's only one of him and three of us, if you don't count Starscream."

Matt took a few deep breaths and turned back to human. "You're right...so...how many people did it take to defeat him last time?"

"Well... our battles have been mostly done under circumstances," said Optimus, "The first time, I kicked him out of the ship when we were entering Earth's atmosphere. The second time, the Allspark mainly caused his defeat. Then the next time a space bridge overloaded and sucked him away. And our last battle was interrupted when Starscream took over Omega."

"So basically...never beaten him fairly," said Matt, his eye twitching again.

Optimus shrugged and admitted, "Can't say that I have."

Matt's eyes glazed over again and he started to giggle faintly. Scorponok however said, "He is right...we'd be best to get off here before Megatron realizes we're here."

"Easier said than done," said Optimus, "There's no telling where Omega's going to warp to next."

"Best thing we can do for now is stay hidden," said Scorponok.

However, Matt's common sense had currently left the building, or ship, and what little rationality he had was telling him, 'Go to the bridge, the equipment there can help, and pick up an ice cream along the way'. Sadly for everyone, nobody noticed when he staggered out the room they were in, humming a cheery tune.

Optimus said, "You're right...hey...where's Matthew?" They turned to look to see the area where Matt should have been and the still open door.

Scorponok said "He didn't..."

"We better hope he didn't," said Optimus before running out the door.

Matt however was gently ricocheting his way down the corridor. "Now then...bridge, bridge...this way," he said, happily.

In one room of the ship, a large purple Decepticon was trying to work at a control panel. Which was difficult since he only had two fingers on each servo and one red optic on his parrot-like head asides from two pairs of secondary optics. Not to mention the ship wasn't really built for a Decepticon of his size and strength.

The Decepticon, whose name was Lugnut, glared at the controls. "Grah...this is demeaning. We should be crushing the almighty Megatron's enemies...not hiding on this ship." Lugnut gave up for the moment. This section was next to a bulkhead sealed door and was unlikely for anything interesting to happen. This changed when there was a small explosion and a chunk of said bulkhead went by the open door.

Lugnut pulled out his mace and said, "An intruder? No one trespasses aboard the great Megatron's ship without dealing with me." He waited for a moment, but nothing seemed to come. Then a bit of disjointed humming got his attention and he looked down to see a human wandering by.

Lugnut, for the first time in his life, was speechless and started a self diagnostic on his optics. While this went on, Matt pottered out of sight and there was another explosion, signifying Matt's departure from the section.

After a few nanocliks, Lugnut composed himself and said, "No filthy organic shall contaminate Megatron's ship." He ran out to see exactly what Matt had managed to do to each meter thick bulkhead door in one shot each...they were very big holes. "Halt, puny human!" commanded Lugnut, "You are not worthy of being on this ship!"

The distant footsteps stopped before they started back, sounding like the human now had a friend. "Surrender, and your demise shall be mercifully quick," said Lugnut, holding up his mace.

"I know you, Lugnut, you got a big NSC file," said a voice from the smoke from the doors destruction.

"The NSC? How do you know of that organization, human?" demanded Lugnut.

"From there, Captain Lynch is the name. Now bugger off," said the voice before a plasma fireball shot out, narrowly missing Lugnut.

"You shall pay for your audacity, organic," said Lugnut before shooting into the smoke with the small turrets on his chest. This time, a growl came out of the smoke and two blue lights appeared in the smoke before what was clearly NOT a human lunged out, grabbed Lugnut's arm in its mouth, and tossed him back into the room. "What in the glorious name of Megatron?" cried Lugnut as he got back up.

"Your files need updating," growled the thing before spitting another fireball at the ceiling, hitting the fire sensors and causing the room's firedoor to slam shut.

Just then, Optimus and Scorponok managed to find Matt. "Matt, we heard fighting," said Scorponok, "Did you find Megatron?"

Matt turned back to human and said, "Nope, just some purple guy I read about in the NSC files. Lugnut, I think. He's in there...EEK!" he said, jumping back as a dent appeared in the door.

"Lugnut? How did he get here?" asked Optimus.

"I think we need to worry about what he'll do when he gets through that door," said Scorponok as another dent appeared on the door.

"Plus...what if he has a comm?" said Matt. On cue the dents stopped appearing. "Oops," said Matt.

Scorponok glared at Matt and said, "Smooth move, Lynch. Why don't you remind him about his Punch of Kill Everything while you're at it?"

"Erm...you do realize the fates love to take a hint...I'd start running," said Matt, turning to do just that.

The three of them quickly ran down the corridor just before the door was blown apart. Lugnut stepped through and shouted, "Halt in the name of the Decepticon race!"

Matt, who suffered from a terrible urge to have the last word, stopped at the corner and blew a raspberry before Scorponok dragged him round the corner. Lugnut lost it and tried to change to bomber form. This was quickly revealed to be a bad move as the corridor was too narrow for his wingspan, resulting in him being stuck in place. As Lugnut struggled to get unstuck, he shouted, "You will not escape! Even if I fail, the almighty Megatron shall not!"

Down the corridor, Matt had ended up sitting on Scorponok's shoulder like an insane parrot. "Does he ever shut up?" he asked as they heard Lugnut's various selections of threats.

"Where Megatron's concerned, no," said Scorponok, "The guy has no individuality."

"So he's an idiot," said Matt, simply.

Scorponok thought about this and could find no counterargument. "More or less," he said finally.

"We need to keep on guard," said Optimus, "If Lugnut contacted Megatron, we could be in deep trouble."

"Good point, I'm allergic to dying," said Matt, nervously.

Meanwhile, Dune Runner and Morph were looking around for someone who could help them, or at least an entrance into the sewers they could use.

Their path had taken them into a rundown deserted area. The reason became clear when they had spent 5 minutes, various different colored spiderbots coming out of nooks and crannies in the area and peering suspiciously at them.

"You think these guys are friendly?" asked Morph.

"I hope so," said Dune Runner, "I don't wanna end up on their bad side." Dune Runner shone a light down a dead end to see a bulkhead door leading underground...that was half open. "Our best chance if any," said Dune Runner as he opened the door.

Morph turned and gulped. It seemed the local spiderbots had decided that 'No, they didn't like these visitors', if the glowing cutter attachments on their front legs were any judge. "Erm...let's go, now," he said.

"Right," said Dune Runner, picking up Morph and hurrying through the door.

They managed to shut the door just in time, several soft 'clungs' heard as the spiderbots tried to get through. Dune Runner clicked on the headlights in his knees and said, "We better hurry and find Bumblebee and Waspinator. This does not look like the best place on Cybertron to be."

The duo headed through the deserted tunnels, trying to ignore the burnt out spiderbots but making a note to avoid whatever had done it.

"I wonder if they have rats on Cybertron," said Morph.

"Dat would be de spiderbots," said Dune Runner.

Morph voiced the next logical thought before he could stop it, "Then what eats them?"

Dune Runner paused and said, "Well, I suppose something stems the spiderbot's multiplying or else they'd be overrunning Cybertron. But what?"

Morph gulped. "I wish you hadn't said that," he said.

Just then, the two of them heard voices up ahead. "Wazpinator not like sewers."

"I can't say I'm liking them myself. At least it's not as bad as Earth's sewers."

Dune Runner sighed with relief. "Bumblebee? Dat you?" he called.

A few metal footsteps were heard and Bumblebee came around the corner. "Thank spark you guys got down here," said Bumblebee, "I thought the spiderbots were gonna scrap us."

"I don't t'ink they're our biggest problem," said Dune Runner worriedly, the image of the slagged spiderbots still fresh in his memory banks.

"Yeah, we need to get out of here before the cleaning system kicks in," said Bumblebee.

"The what?" asked Morph.

As soon as Morph had said something, a faint rumbling made itself known and a boxy robot rolled round the corner, a huge spike-covered grinder on the front and several red optics looking around. A spiderbot tried to scuttle away before a laser flocked out and incinerated it.

"We oughta find out what kind of laser that is," said Dune Runner, "But right now, I think we need to RUN AWAY!"

"Wazpinator too big, Wazpinator can't go fast enough!" called Waspinator.

Dune Runner pulled a loose girder to fall in the path of the machine. However, this didn't work so well as the grinder simply drove through the steel like it was made of soft cheese. However, at that the red optics all turned to focus on Dune Runner before it intoned in a level emotionless voice, "Criminal action detected...responding."

"As Optimus would say, transform and roll out!" shouted Dune Runner. He and Bumblebee switched to vehicle mode, with Morph getting into Dune Runner. Waspinator managed to change to wasp mode, which was small enough to be able move through the tunnels except for flying.

The grinder drove after them with the simple gait of something knowing that its target is going nowhere before the group came to a T junction.

"Slag, which way do we go?" asked Bumblebee.

"I t'ink it's this way," said Dune Runner, turning left.

"Wazpinator say this way," said Waspinator, turning right.

"Wasp! Wait up!" called Bumblebee, driving after him.

The grinder rolled to a halt as two of its targets went one way...however, the one who had tried to hit it with a girder was in front of him. It sent a few pulses into the roof of the tunnel Wasp and Bumblebee had gone down before charging at Dune Runner.

"Wasp! Look out!" called Bumblebee. However, the ceiling started caving in between them. Waspinator got hit on the head by one rock, which stunned him. More rocks fell down, creating a hole in the floor. The dazed Waspinator was swept down the hole with the other rocks.

The grinder was the main problem but it's simple AI was having trouble deciding which troublesome trash to annihilate first.

"Bumblebee, you go find Wasp, we'll take care of this trash tank!" called Dune Runner before blasting at the grinder with the blasters on his rail.

Bumblebee looked down the hole before the Grinder solved any lack of decision he had by bumping him over the edge as it charged Dune Runner.

"Great, but what about us?" asked Morph.

"Same plan as before, RUN!" shouted Dune Runner before racing away.

Meanwhile, Prowl, Nightbird, and Chloe were flying over vast numbers of trees. "You're sure this place is inhabited?" asked Prowl.

"Where there's tree's there's usually something in the trees," said Chloe.

"I still get the feeling that someone is leading us around in circles," said Prowl, giving a suspicious look at Nightbird.

Chloe followed Prowl's gaze to NightBird. "I know the feeling," she said.

"Ok, let's stop in this clearing, I need to get our bearings straight," said Nightbird as she flew down towards a clearing in the forest.

Chloe looked at the aforementioned clearing. "You mean the really good ambush spot?" she said sarcastically.

"Who's here to ambush you?" said Nightbird, a bit of a smirk in her voice.

"Well...you seem to not be too worried about an unknown planet," said Chloe accusingly.

"Why should I be? I'm more than competent enough to deal with any hostile lifeform. Not sure I can say the same for you," said Nightbird.

Chloe bared her teeth before smirking. "You should face a T-3 someday..." she said smugly.

Prowl rubbed his forehead and said, "Can you two please give your rivalry a rest for a cycle? You're giving me a processor-ache."

Chloe said smugly to Nightbird, "Its mot my fault if our companion has a few glitches."

"Better than having defective organic tissue for a processor," said Nightbird.

Chloe let herself wing close enough to mutter, "I could make your own electricity fry your insides to nothing..." before smiling sweetly and flying down to join Prowl in the clearing.

Prowl sighed to himself before activating his scanners. "The only forms of life I can detect are small organic beings that are too small to be a threat to us and are apparently afraid of us."

Chloe looked around. Her mercenary and dragon senses were combining to beat a tattoo on her mind. "Can't some of you guys cloak?" she said suspiciously.

"It is a part of Metalikatto training," said Prowl, "But few Transformers who don't know Metalikatto are able to hide our energy signatures."

"What about Nightbirdy?" said Chloe.

Nightbird was examining the edge of her dagger in a bored way. "Oh, I'm not afraid of anything that could be here," she said.

Chloe glared. "And why's that, sweetie?" she said, nastily.

Prowl paused and said, "Chloe, don't move." A few seconds later, Prowl shouted, "Forget that, move!"

Chloe did move, spitting a lightning bolt that was easily past the million volt mark into the treeline, a cry indicating it had hit something before she spread her wings and took off. However, several lines of cord shot out from several trees. The cords wrapped themselves around Chloe's legs, tail, and muzzle. Chloe snarled under her muzzle and the cable flashed white for a second as a charge shot down the cable. There was a 'thunk' as the cord's owner got the charge between the optics before Chloe burst the weakened cables apart with her wings. A second later, two stunner blasts hit her in the back, making her annoyed before 4 more finally knocked her out.

Prowl barely had time to get his shuriken in his hands before four ninja bots leaped out of the trees, all of them wearing the Decepticon insignia. The ninja bots immediately charged at Prowl. The first one barely lasted a second before Prowl dodged it and pushed hit, continuing the ninja bots move into a heavy tree head first. The second one had a type of energy blade and aimed a slash, only for Prowl to damage the blade with a shuriken. The third one tried to strike Prowl down with several blows, but Prowl countered them all before kicking him away.

The last one kicked what looked like a small rock into an area near Prowl. The rock flicked a laser wire that caused a small whomp before a pile of logs fell down towards Prowl. Prowl took one moment to look at it before concentrating and starting to hum. The logs slowly came to a stop before just floating in space. Then they threw themselves at the ninja Cons.

Nightbird turned to leave only to be nose to nose with the now conscious, and almost feral with rage, Chloe. "Going some...where?" she growled, struggling to keep her instincts from biting the traitorous bot in half.

"I guess I'll have to deal with you myself," said Nightbird, flipping her daggers out.

"Hold!" called the Decepticon who triggered the trap, "These two shall not be harmed!" Chloe turned her head to look at the Decepticon who had spoken and just snarled.

"What? But he's an Autobot! He should struck down on sight for being here," said Nightbird.

"He knows processor-over-matter," said the Decepticon, "He must be a master of the ancient arts. Not to mention the same fate should fall upon you if you brought these two here."

Chloe however had managed to calm down a bit. "We didn't ask to be here," she said, taking deep breaths to get a hold on her temper.

"Master Banzaitron shall be the judge of that," said the Decepticon.

"Master Bludgeon?" said Nightbird disbelievingly, "You would bring these two there?"

"If they don't know the way," said the Decepticon, nodding to the others.

Chloe glared before looking at Nightbird. "Fine...but I'm owed something," she said.

The Decepticon nodded slightly and said, "If you want to proceed any further, you'll have to be blindfolded."

Chloe nodded before swinging round, bringing her tail round hard enough to knock Nightbird over with a sizable dent. "Fine," she said.

"Master Banzaitron? Who is he?" asked Prowl.

"You will soon find out," said one of the ninja Cons before putting he and another put blindfolds over Prowl and Chloe's eyes.

Back on Omega Supreme, more precisely on the bridge, Megatron was listening to Lugnut's excuse to why his sector's fire alert had gone off...and to why he had blown the firedoor open.

"You're speaking nonsense," said Megatron, "How could a human get aboard this ship, let alone two Autobots?"

"I do not know how, Lord Megatron. It cannot have been a true human," said Lugnut, who personally was still unsure what he had seen himself.

"The organic is not a great crisis," said Megatron, "However, these two Autobots may be more trouble."

Starscream however had watched what had happened and was trying not to laugh and silently hoping the reptilian creature would run into Megatron and do to him what it had done to the blast doors.

"I recognized one of the Autobots as the leader of the Earthbound Autobots," said Lugnut.

"Then it shall be a double pleasure to be rid of him, whatever his name is," said Megatron.

Starscream was now grinning to himself. Sure, he would have liked to have destroyed Megatron himself but it would be just as entertaining to watch instead.

"I shall have the intruders crushed as fast as possible," said Lugnut, banging his servos together for emphasis.

"Leave at least one for me to offline," said Megatron, "I need something to amuse myself while we figure out how to stop this overgrown Autobot from transwarping randomly through space."

Meanwhile, the trio in question were heading through the ship. "So basically, one of your enemies is now just a head in the ship. That's weird, even for me," said Matt, having had the ship's situation explained abit more.

"Yes, and as long as he's jacked in, Omega Supreme has no control," said Optimus, "Fortunately, they're not able to stay in one place long enough to do any harm to anyone."

There was a shudder as the ship jumped again. "Ok...Doesn't this ship have escape pods?" said Matt.

"It used to until Starscream, or one of his clones, destroyed it," said Optimus, "I say the plan is either we use the transwarp field to make a portal long enough to get us back to Earth, or disable the Decepticons and take back Omega."

"Usually I would be all for plan 2...but I think we're probably a bit outmatched at the moment," said Matt.

"I'm afraid you're right," said Optimus, "What do you think Scorponok?"

Scorponok was looking grimmer. "I want one shot at Megatron, I owe him that much," he said in a low tone.

"You know...and this is coming from me here..." said Matt before rearing up so he had his front paws on Scorponok's shoulders and they were nose to nose before he screamed, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"Megatron betrayed me," said Scorponok, "I may not be a Decepticon anymore, but I want to see the fall of that tyrant."

There was a crash suddenly at the far end of the corridor and the trio turned to see Lugnut, looking very annoyed. "Oh great, it's Sergeant Fanatic," said Matt.

"Your doom is sealed!" shouted Lugnut, "Fall before the glory of the Decepticon race!" He then fired his turrets at the trio.

Matt yelped, falling back as the blasts barely missed him before getting up and spitting a plasma fireball back at Lugnut. "I've had enough of this," said Scorponok before opening up his arms and firing missiles at Lugnut.

The missiles exploded around Lugnut, tripping him and sending him sliding along. Unfortunately, Matt was unable to get out the way and ended up surfing along on Lugnut's back. "Oh...good evening," he said a bit hysterically to Lugnut. Lugnut was apparently stunned by the assault and just laid on the floor. Matt shifted back to human form and said, "Ok, now let's get out of here before we run into any..." The door beside him just opened, allowing a tall grey robot through. His shoulders and head were less pointy than his NSC file picture, but he was quite recognizable. "Trouble?" squeaked Matt.

Megatron looked down at Matt and said, "What have we here? An insect pest?" He paused when his sensors picked up nanobot activity in this human's head. "And not just any insect, I see. You wouldn't happen to be one of the ghost pilots who decimated some of my forces stellar cycles ago?"

"No...what's a ghost? I don't believe in Ghosts. YOU CAN PROVE NOTHING!" said Matt, whatever grip he had on sanity vaporizing under the sheer fear overload.

"Well, we'll just to find out the hard way, won't we?" said Megatron, reaching for Matt.

Matt quickly found out the bonus of being the smallest thing in the room, dodging the grab and running between Megatron's legs. "Good luck with that, smeghead," he said, running for a vent.

"I did not give permission to leave, alive that is," said Megatron before firing his fusion cannon at Matt. Matt managed to dodge the blast before running through a barely open door into a side room. He shifted to Dragon form just in time as another blast 'opened' the door.

Megatron was about to pursue Matt when he heard a voice yell, "Megatron!" Megatron turned to look at the angry-looking Autobot with a tail. "Your battle is with me!" snarled Scorponok. Megatron was confused for a second before Scorponok lunged at him. The Decepticon leader easily countered the lunge and brought his fist down on Scorponok's exposed back.

Megatron kicked Scorponok away before saying, "Do I know you? I recognize the drive of revenge in your attack and you seem slightly familiar."

"I thought you would have kept better tabs on your soldiers," said Scorponok, "Of course, you would want me off the records, since I was 'the biggest failure of the Triple Changer project'."

Matt had slunk round the corner, wondering why his ambush was taking so long and saw Megatron standing over Scorponok. With a roar he jumped on the Decepticon's back. "Get outta here, you nutter!" he roared at Scorponok, digging his claws in for purchase.

Megatron barely acknowledge Matt and knocked him off his back. His processor was quickly searching through his memories of the Triple Changer project until a long-forgotten memory came back up. "Sandstorm? You're still alive?" said Megatron with a bit of surprise in his voice.

"No thanks to you," said Scorponok, "and the name's Scorponok now."

Matt got up with a snarl before a fusion blast it him in the chest, sending him sliding back into the side room.

"I suppose sending you through an untested portal was not enough to destroy you," said Megatron, "How did you survive?"

"Not easily," said Scorponok, "And it's changed me quite a bit. For example, I can now do this!" He changed into scorpion mode before hissing and charging at Megatron, stinger and claws at the ready. Megatron reacted with practiced military skill, firing a triple burst at the charging Scorponok. However, Scorponok's scorpion form had the advantage of krylock reinforcement in the shell, rendering the blasts less then usually potent. Scorponok snapped at Megatron's leg while he tried to strike at Megatron's chest with his stinger.

Matt staggered out of the room and was nearly flattened as Megatron and Scorponok's fight went by. Very fortunately, the energy from Megatron's fusion cannon was close enough to plasma to keep it from killing Matt. However, it still caused Matt a lot of pain and took a lot of fight out of him. Matt yelled, "This is not the time to be arse kicking," he said before a missed shot sent him flying backwards into the bridge. "Ow," he said weakly.

"Foolish mortals!" cried a voice, "Who dares to challenge the great and powerful Starscream? Surrender now and I may persuaded in allowing to live in eternal slavery. Do not for one nanoklik that you can defeat me. I am invincible!"

Matt looked around before looking down to see Starscream's head and bursting out in hysterical laughter. "What's wrong? Lost your head?" her said, gasping between laughter.

"Cut it out," said Starscream. Matt just kept laughing. "Cut it out, cut it out! I'm the Master of the Universe! THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE! I can't help if I'm missing a body right now."

Matt smirked and said, "Aw...he's so cute," and patted Starscream on the head, only to be bitten. "GAH...HE'S A BITER!" he screamed flailing Starscream around.

At some point, Starscream let go and he flew across the bridge before landing on a console. "That'll teach you to disrespect me, organic," said Starscream.

Matt ignited a plasma ball, waited till he had his audience's full attention then let it fall and go through the floor like it was warm butter. "And for my next trick...I'll make you disappear," said Matt in an angry voice.

Matt was about to throw before the ship lurched again with another transwarp, throwing Matt's aim off. The blast bounced around the room before shooting out the door, actually saving Scorponok when it hit between him and Megatron.

Their battle had been pretty vicious, especially since Scorponok switched back to robot mode to deliver more damage. Matt's blast had reminded Megatron there were other matters that need dealing with. "I could possibly forgive you for living or becoming techno-organic," said Megatron, "But not for turning sides." He then stabbed Scorponok in both legs with his swords. Scorponok yelled in pain as the swords stapled his legs to the wall behind him.

Optimus would have gone to help his two friends, but he was rather busy at the moment. Lugnut woke back up not long after Scorponok attacked Megatron and was now trying to crush Optimus. "I will crush you in my lord's name," roared Lugnut, attempting to get his hands round Optimus's head. The fight was broken up as there was a 'boom' and the two were thrown down as a relay in the wall overloaded.

"What was that?" demanded Megatron, walking onto the bridge.

"Um, I don't think we're in friendly territory right now," said Starscream, looking out the window.

The comm had activated from the hit was flooding with scrambled talk. Out the window, a NSC colonial militia gunship was lining its Isis plasma cannon for another shot and 2 NSC battlecruisers were moving to bring their broadside railguns to bear,..all 100 of them.

Meanwhile, Waspinator was getting his processor back online after being dropped down the hole by the rockfall. "Uhh...Wazpinator feel worse than time after squishy organic's therapy," he groaned.

Waspinator looked around as he rubbed his head. Apparently, he had fallen into the deep caverns far underneath the surface of Cybertron. Few bots had ever come down this far, and not for millions of stellar cycles. Waspinator looked closer at some of the area and jumped when his foot tapped against an empty oil can. Obviously, this place had seen one recent visitor.

"Wazpinator not like underground. Wazpinator want to go back to surface," said Waspinator as he shifted back to robot mode and started walking around for a possible escape route. Waspinator sadly did not think to continue his look so did not see that one of the old cameras had power and was turning to follow his movement.

In the old war tunnel system, a robot was observing Waspinator through the camera. This robot was very noticeable due to his single red eye, the horns on his head, his tall, lanky body with treads on his arms and legs, and the Decepticon insignia on his chest.

The Decepticon Shockwave had been hiding in the old tunnels since he had attacked Ultra Magnus. That fool, Sentinel Prime hadn't even tried looking for him. However this newcomer was strange. He was clearly techno-organic, like his old colleague Blackarachnia, but he never recalled seeing another one before, let alone among the Decepticon ranks.

"Hmm...interesting," said Shockwave to himself and pressed a few buttons to shut some of the blastdoors and channel the techno-organic in his direction. "Well, there's always room for more among Megatron's troops," said Shockwave, "But I think a qualification exam is in order." He shifted into tank mode and started rolling towards a nearby door towards the caverns.

This was lucky as Shockwave then missed the camera view of Bumblebee dropping down into the same cavern Waspinator had fallen into.

Waspinator looked around in confusion. He was pretty sure he had passed that rock formation before, right? Of course, there were some old blastdoors lowered, but they couldn't have been moved recently, right?

A rumbling got his attention and a tank rolled into view, rotating to aim its cannon at him. "Wait! Don't shoot! Wazpinator not trash!" shouted Waspinator.

The tank immediately changed into a Cybertronian and said, "Why would I fire upon my own allies?"

"Wazpinator not going to get slagged?" asked Waspinator.

"No...you are not going to get 'slagged'," said the Cybertronian in an exasperated voice.

"Who are you?' asked Waspinator.

"I am Shockwave," said Shockwave. After a moment's expectation, Shockwave asked, "Haven't you heard of me?"

"No," said Waspinator.

Shockwave said, "What do you mean, you haven't heard of me? What kind of Decepticon are you?"

"New guy Decepticon?" suggested Waspinator.

Shockwave gazed closer at waspinator. ""You look familiar," he said.

"Wazpinator waz thinking same thing about Shock-bot," said Waspinator.

Shockwave said, "What are you doing down here...or here for that matter? I was unaware of any other Decepticons on Cybertron."

"Wazpinator didn't want to come to Cybertron," said Waspinator, "Wazpinator was tranzwarped from Earth to Cybertron along with Bumblebot and Fourarms. Wazpinator waz nearly slagged by garbage tank and ended up in caves."

Shockwave was surprised at that. "Bumblebee?" he said confused.

"Yes, Bumblebot left Wazpinator when garbage tank attacked. Stupid Bumblebot alwayz leaving Wazp in trouble," grumbled Wazpinator.

"What were you doing with an Autobot?" said Shockwave, readying his cannon.

"Wazpinator went to Earth to get revenge on Bumblebot. Wazpinator wasted stellar cycles in Stockades because of Bumblebot," growled Waspinator.

Shockwave stopped at that. Only one Cybertronian would know bumblebee and have spent time in the Stockades. Wasp...but this bot wasn't Wasp...at least not anymore. Shockwave knew he had to tread carefully here. After all, he did frame Wasp for being a spy and ruin his life. On the other servo, this could really work to his advantage.

"It is such a shame...especially how those cursed Autobots obviously foiled your right of vengeance," said Shockwave.

"Other bots alwayz getting in Wazpinator's way," growled Waspinator, "Bumblebot, Bulkbot, Sarge-bot, even Spider-bot."

"Spiderbot? Oh met Blackarachnia," said Shockwave, already trying to work out how to turn this to his advantage. If this numbskull was down here, then no doubt the Elite Guard was not far behind.

"Spider-bot said she waz Wazpinator's friend, had lots in common with Wazpinator. But she only made Wazp into Wazpinator for experiment," growled Wazpinator.

"I never liked her much. I understand Megatron wishes to have...words with her," said Shockwave. Then Shockwave thought to himself, 'I wonder where Megatron is, anyways? I haven't heard from him in decacycles.'

Back on Omega Supreme, the ship shook again as the cluster of NSC ships battered at its defense shields before parting like fish before a whale to reveal two new ships. Matt, despite everything said, "Oh...its two of the new Rokh classes. They're supposed to have tons of firepower...oh dear." The second part added as the two ships turned to present a broadside of 16 large looking railguns.

The bombardment seemed to rouse the inactive Omega Supreme, at least temporarily. A deep voice was heard on all the intercoms, "Alert, heavy firepower detected, preparing counterattack tactics."

At the same time, 36 gun flashes from each of the two vessels flashed and a cluster of railgun rounds could be seen heading forward. A half dozen lasers folded out and began firing on the rounds but a second volley was already on its way. 4 rounds struck home out of sight below the viewport, the thuds of their hits heard.

"Situation: critical. Preparing to return fire," said Omega Supreme. Several gun ports popped out from the sides of the ship as well as the large cannon on the top turning and warming up.

The main cannon flashed out, catching one of the battleship's dead center, the battleships shields blazing as they absorbed it. When the ship breezed through, Matt couldn't help but feel a bit patriotic. Hell, sure it was trying to kill him but damn, if the NSC didn't know how to build a good ship.

Just then, an even larger ship appeared on the viewscreen, one that dwarfed even Omega Supreme. "Oh smeg, it's a planet cracker," said Matt.

"Chances of survival: unfavorable," said Omega, "Must transwarp to safer location."

Matt gibbered as one of the 6 barreled ion cannons turned to aim at Omega Supreme. "I agree...faster please, Mr. Starship," he said in a desperately calm voice.

Whether it was because of Omega himself or the plasmadynamic thruster activating again, the ship became covered in transwarp energy before disappearing. Matt wasn't concentrating on that. The Cerberus class planet cracker had fired just before it had engaged and the ion shell had been close enough for Matt to read its serial number when they had jumped out of its way.

When the ship rematerialized somewhere else, Matt said, "Ok, I say we have a five minute break before we start fighting again so my heart can stop pounding." Then all the lights in the bridge went out. "As well as wait for the lights to go back on."

Megatron sighed. "Useless Autobot power cells," he said before looking down at Matt, "I suppose I should deal with the vermin," before trying to stamp on Matt.

"Hey, I demand to be killed by something more dignifying than being squished!" yelled Matt before pausing and saying, "What am I saying?"

He narrowly missed becoming a greasy smear before rolling over to see Megatron getting ready again. "Hot foot," he said and threw a plasma orb.

Megatron clutched at his landing pad for a moment before glaring and said, "Have it your way," and grabbing Starscream's head.

"Hey! What are you doing?" demanded Starscream before Megatron pulled a handle out from the back of Starscream's head and causing his mouth unfold wider and a blaster to emerge.

"Oh, you are kidding," said Matt, weakly before running for it.

Megatron fired sonic blasts at Matt, to Starscream's garbled complaint. "Hold still, you little parasite," said Megatron before firing again.

"Make me, you sorry excuse for a toaster oven," retorted Matt.

"You are trying the last of my patience, Earthling!" snapped Megatron.

"Good, it shows I'm doing my job right," said Matt, stopping at a corner and making a very rude gesture.

"No one mocks me and gets away with it!" shouted Megatron before tossing Starscream aside, causing Starscream to give a cry of pain. Megatron then pointed his fusion cannon at Matt and opened fire. Matt screamed and got round the corner just in time. The blast however continued on its merry way and blew a good-sized hole in the wall.

Matt panted for a second to get his heart back to a semi-proper rate. Then he noticed the hole in the wall glowing blue before healing itself up. "That's useful," he commented before he realized that standing still at the moment would be hazardous to his health.

To prove his point, Megatron came around the corner and said, "You won't escape me that easily, human."

"Shows what you know," said Matt before turning dragon and flying away. Megatron was a bit shocked at Matt's audacity for a minute before giving chase. "Too bad you can't fly in here, Mega-jerk," taunted Matt. The sound of gears shifting followed by swishing air caused Matt to look back over his shoulder. Unlike Lugnut, Megatron's tiltrotor mode was just small enough to fly inside Omega's hallways. Which also allowed him to shoot with his fusion cannon and chase Matt without losing speed. "Me and my big smegging mouth," said Matt, dodging several blasts.

As Megatron pursued Matt, Matt was trying to think of anyway to shake Megaton off his tail, if only for a moment. Matt looked in one room he was passing real quickly and said, "Huh, look at all those energon cubes." Megatron stopped and looked, if only cause a stray blast could blow Omega Supreme into countless bits. This was more than long enough for Matt to scramble into an air vent.

Megatron then noticed Matt had disappeared. "You can't hide forever!" he yelled. Then he quietly muttered to himself, "I'm just glad no one was here to see that."

In another part of the galaxy, Chloe and Prowl were being carried by the Decepticon ninjas. There wasn't much to protest about, seeing how they were supposed to be going willingly. But the blindfolding part made the trip rather tedious. "Are we there yet?" said Chloe, in a bored voice.

"For the 18th time, NO!" snapped Nightbird, "Honestly, I don't see why we shouldn't just offline and dump them in a ditch."

"Master Banzai-tron must see them first," reminded one of the ninja-cons, "You know how he is."

"See? We're liked," said Chloe in an annoyed voice.

"Just give me one excuse, the slightest excuse," growled Nightbird.

"Your head looks like it's made of rust," said Chloe smugly.

Nightbird growled for a few seconds before saying to another of the ninja-cons, "She's doesn't keep proper maintenance of her dental structures, if you know what I mean."

Chloe said innocently, "Is that your main circuitry by my claws?"

"Considering the rarity of how often you file them, they could be anyone's circuitry," replied Nightbird.

Chloe ripped off the blindfold at that, shifting to dragoness form. "YOU'RE SCRAP, YOU JUMPED-UP CURLING IRON."

The two females started struggling with each other, both clearly trying to cause as much pain as possible. The other 'Cons would have stopped them, but their fighting was strangely intriguing. Prowl was the only one not intrigued...if anything he was a bit embarrassed.

"Enough!" Immediately, the catfight between Chloe and Nightbird came to a halt. Everyone turned to see a Decepticon walking towards them. His robot mode had a large resemblance to black samurai armor, with some tank parts showing. His head was very skeletal, looking like a skull wearing a samurai helmet that had the Decepticon insignia on the brow.

Chloe glared. "I'm a bit busy stripping this bimbo-bot for parts," she snarled.

"Oh, like you haven't been flaunting with males yourself," snapped Nightbird.

Chloe growled and got ready to use her claws to make Nightbird's face one with the bedrock.

In a blur of movement that nearly didn't register in Chloe's brain, the samurai-bot had a sword to Chloe's chest. "Would someone care to explain what this creature is doing in my dojo?" he demanded.

Chloe looked down at the sword, "Get that out my face."

Nightbird immediately began to say "They are intruders who must be dealt..."

The leader of the small group of ninja-cons spoke up, "Master Banzai-tron, this Autobot know the secret of processor-over-matter."

Master Banzai-tron looked at Prowl with interest. "An Autobot knowing of the old arts?" he said thoughtfully before looking at Chloe, "And this thing?"

"She came with them," said the ninja-con, "We brought them to you so you can decide what to do with them."

Chloe said, "Can you please take your weapon out of my face before I demonstrate lightning rods?"

Banzaitron sheathed his sword and said to his acolites, "Keep an eye on this beast. I'd rather not have a savage animal running loose."

Chloe glared at him. "I am NOT a savage, you jumped-up toaster oven," she said.

"Then I suggest you stop behaving like one," said Banzaitron. Chloe glared before closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths and shimmered down into human form. Banzaitron looked intrigued by Chloe's transformation. "Hmm... She might be useful after all," he said to himself. Then he turned to Prowl and said, "You, Autobot, what is your name and how did you learn processor-over-matter?"

For a moment, Prowl considered not saying anything...after all, they were Decepticons but he then realized that keeping silent could end badly. "I am Prowl," he said.

"Prowl, I think I might have heard of you," said Banzaitron, "You were the last student of Yoketron, were you not?"

Prowl nodded in simple acknowledgment.

"Ah, yes, I knew your master well," said Banzaitron, "Before the Great War started, we were colleagues. We traveled the galaxy, searching for the great secrets of the universe, learning various martial arts along the way. You should feel honored to have had him for your sensei, and even greater honor to be wearing his helmet."

"You said 'were'," pointed out Prowl, "I assume you already know that he was dead, but I don't think that was what you were referring to."

Banzaitron nodded and said, "Yes, we had a bit of a disagreement. You might call it 'artistic differences'."

Chloe said, "You agreed with that sadistic creep's views."

"Partially," said Banzaitron, "You see, Yoketron and I had different opinions on how one should find the secret of the universe. Yoketron foolishly thought that peace of spark and a calm mind will find the way. But I know the true way to enlightenment: with force. Megatron's views suited mine enough, so I decided to join his side when the war started."

Prowl said, "Why are you so interested in processor-over-matter?" looking at the surrounding ninja bots

"Well, I naturally knew most of Yoketron's tricks and moves," said Banzaitron, "But processor-over-matter was something he invented and I have been unable to figure out how he does it. So I need to hear it from someone who does know it."

Prowl was about to reply when Chloe said, "Like we'd tell you anything."

"Oh, I think you should," said Banzaitron, "It's the only reason I'm keep you online."

Chloe said, "Now I know you...the NSC's been after your little gang for ages."

"The NSC?" Banzaitron paused and looked at Chloe closely, "Hmm... you do look a member of their race. I have had trouble from them in the past. Perhaps I better nip this problem while it's still in the bud." He pulled out his sword and got ready to strike.

Chloe finally snapped and sent a lightning bolt down the sword, demonstrating all the fun of a lightning rod up close and personal. Banzaitron shook and shuddered from the voltage. When he recovered, he glared at Chloe and said, "Nightbird, take this pest off this planet. Let's see how her smart tongue will assist her in the vacuum of space."

Nightbird smirked like it was her birthday and took a step forward. Prowl said suddenly, "Ok...I will tell you...just spare her."

Banzaitron smirked and said, "I thought you'd see it my way."

A second later, a translucent green wave passed over the group, piercing through the clouds. When it had passed over and everyone's eyes had stopped being scrambled, they noticed Chloe looked a bit...drunk.

"Ooooooh...pretty light..." said Chloe before giggling.

Banzaitron said, "What was that? And what is with the beast?"

A member of his group however ran up in a panic. "Sensei..." he said in a panic, stammering.

"What is it?" demanded Banzaitron.

"Sensei, there was an NSC scout ship here. It just scanned our dojo," said the acolyte.

Chloe burst out laughing at that. "YAY...I like parties," she said in a slurred voice before passing out, changing to dragon form.

Banzaitron glared at Chloe. "She's lead the NSC right to us." He then turned his glare towards Nightbird, "Or perhaps it was you."

Nightbird gulped and said, "Sensei...I wouldn't," she stammered.

Banzaitron turned to his other acolytes and said, "Prepare for battle. We'll have more than just a scout ship here before long."

Prowl said, "They won't bother to land. We both know how they prefer to operate after the loss of their colonies to Megatron."

Banzaitron pointed his sword at Prowl and said, "Consider yourself fortunate that you're too valuable to dispose of. Once we've dealt with the NSC, you will tell me the secret of processor-over-matter."

Prowl said, "I think not," as Chloe came round, grabbing her and causing her to shift to human and transforming to drive off.

Fleet captain Legeas could not believe his luck...a Decepticon ship had escaped his battlefleet and now one of the most wanted Decepticons had been grabbed by one of his scout probes on a standard fly-by of planet PX-479.

"Alright boys, we're gonna get big bonuses today. Let's take down those walking war machines," said Legeas.

One of his fleet captains said, "Sir, we got an ID. Banzaitron, a ground force would be massacred. I say we give these new battleship railguns a proper test run."

"Good thinking there," said Legeas, "We'll get a major reward for bringing down Banzaitron. Let's hit 'em hard."

On the ground, Banzaitron had decided not to pursue for now, instead looking at the views from orbital scanners of the ships moving into stationary orbits over the planet single small landmass. There were three large ships among them, the likes Banzaitron had never seen before. They looked heavily armed. One of the ships came to a stop and began firing a hail of railgun rounds towards the planet. At the same time, the ground began to tremble like there was an earthquake close by.

"Decepticons, keep out of range of their missiles," said Banzaitron, "They're too powerful to face head on." The second ship began to fire to the south before another scanner showed the northern area of the continent under fire. t was already glowing red as railgun rounds fractured the planetary crust.

"On second thought, Decepticons, retreat. We need to get to safety before those cannons hit us," said Banzaitron.

A comm. turned on at that. "Banzaitron, this is Fleet commander Legeas of the Nullspace Security Coalition. You got 10 minutes before my orbit takes you in range of my guns. Unless you're lava proof, I suggest you surrender. This offers only on the table till I'm in range."

"Ninja-cons don't surrender that easily," said Banzaitron, "Decepticons, fall back to our emergency escape way."

"You mean your ship? I believe that WAS where the new craters are...9 minutes and 15 seconds now," said Legeas.

Banzaitron growled before severing the connection. "Decepticons, to the teleporter. We must leave the planet."

"What about me, sir?" asked Nightbird before gulping as Banzaitron pointed his sword at her. "You? You brought these two to our base. The NSC were able to track their agent here. So it is your fault we're losing our base. So the next time I see you, it had better be with a processor-over-matter master in your captivity, preferably the one that's trying to get away. If I ever see you again without the secret of processor-over-matter to give me, you will be quick to join the Well of All Sparks. Do I make myself clear?"

Nightbird said, "Crystal...Sensei." She was fuming inside, shown up by an Autobot reject and a scaley organic pain in the tail pipe. She transformed into her Nighthawk mode and said, "Don't worry, master. I'll bring that Autobot back, along with the organic's head." She then flew off in the direction Chloe and Prowl went.

As soon as she had cleared the dojo's hide out within a small mountain, she could already see the sheer damage three NSC ships were wreaking. She had not taken part in the operations vs the NSC a century ago and already the horizon was glowing red with fire, what looked like a rain of comets slamming into the far land, flashes sighting where they hit. "That half-breed tramp will pay for this," growled Nightbird before accelerating.

Meanwhile, Shockwave was continuing to condition Wasp to the Decepticon way of thinking. He had least made progress with the anti-Autobot attitude.

"Wazp think you remind him of boring bot from training," said Waspinator.

"Er, I don't know what you mean," said Shockwave quickly.

"Longbot was boring bot," said Waspinator.

"Now wait a nanoklik, I couldn't have been that- Er, he couldn't have been that dull," said Shockwave, nearly exposing himself out of injured ego.

Luckily part of Waspinator's insanity was the attention span of a mushroom and he had already forgotten. "Wazpinator getting bored. Wazpinator want to slag something," whined Waspinator.

Shockwave just stared. He had heard that Wasp had gone a bit glitchy in the head but this was impressive. He then looked over to see Bumblebee in one of the tunnels. "I have just the thing," he said,

Bumblebee had been wandering around the caverns ever since the cave-in. "Wasp! Are you there? Wasp? Where are you?" he called.

A few spiderbots scuttled around him, peering in confusion at the big bot from the surface that had wandered down into their domain.

"Ok, this is starting to get creepy," said Bumblebee, "I mean, how hard could it be to find a big green wasp down here anyways?"

One of the spiderbots parroted what he said, squeaking, "Find da waspy." The others began to say that over and over again.

"No, I stand corrected, NOW it's starting to get creepy," said Bumblebee.

The spiderbots then all stopped...like they were listening to a voice only they can hear before they all jumped down around Bumblebee. The ones behind him nudged against the back of Bumblebee's feet while the ones in front moved forward a little. "What? You want me to follow you?" asked Bumblebee.

"Boss want to see you...bee bot," said another of the spiderbots, this one golden colored instead of the classic blue metal.

"Oooookay... it's official, I've shorted out my circuits," said Bumblebee.

"You no come...it end baaaadly," said the golden spiderbot.

"Right, if I come, it'll probably end worse," said Bumblebee, walking away from the spiderbots.

One of the smaller bots said in a cute voice "Bye bye," waving.

"I have a bad feeling about this," said Bumblebee seconds before a blast of green electricity nearly hit him.

"Gah...Bumblebot move," said Waspinator's voice before another blast, different this time shot out and almost hit Bumblebee.

"Wasp? What are you doing?" Bumblebee cried as he avoided another blast.

"Wazpinator not listen to silly Autobot...Wazpinator Decepticon," came the reply. There was also some angry chittering and Bumblebee turned to see the third blast had knocked a spiderbot over which was staggering around.

The other spiderbots were clicking their mandibles before they started scurrying towards Waspinator. Waspinator tried to blast them, but there were far too many. Bumblebee didn't see what was happening but the clanging noises and when Wasp's head bounced into view with a annoyed expression, it was clear that these spiderbots were not that different from Lynches

"Uh, you know, I think I'll just come back when you're in a better mood," said Bumblebee.

Waspinator just yelled unintelligibly. Bumblebee had gotten a few steps before a much larger version of the spiderbots came into view, what was clearly a looted laser cannon mounted on top of it. "Follow now," it said in a deep echoing voice.

Bumblebee gulped and said, "Uh, sure, whatever you say."

Shockwave was not surprised when Waspinator was delivered in kit form, his head looking very annoyed, courtesy of his...neighbor. Shockwave sighed and said, "I suppose if you want an irritating intruder taken care of, you have to do it yourself." He transformed into tank mode and started rolling in the direction of Bumblebee.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee was being led into several caves, some of the few pieces of natural rock left that connected into the sewer system. Dozens of spiderbots, some of the normal ones, some more of the warriors and even a few that were fiddling with wiring and even a few in alcoves, obviously recharging.

"Whoa, I didn't think the spiderbots were that advanced a group," said Bumblebee.

The warrior behind him poked its cannon into his back, forcing him onwards. It finally ended in an old rusted underground storage area, the only proper entry tunnel shown to be clogged with rubble. In the middle was a quite worrying creature. The lower half and head was of the classic spiderbot while the middle was a humanoid torso and with arms, one ending in a humanoid hand and the other in what looked like a graviton cannon.

"By the Allspark," whispered Bumblebee.

The 'spiderbot' turned to look at Bumblebee, its right eye looked like a camera lens, whirring as it zoomed in. "An Autobot...how interesting," it said in a cultured and clearly female voice.

"Uh, yeah, hi, my name's Bumblebee," said Bumblebee nervously.

"I have many names...ranging from when the creators made us both," said the spiderbot.

"Wow," said Bumblebee, "I didn't think the spiderbots went that far back. Everyone just thinks they're animals." He added as quietly under his breath as possible, "Pests to be precise."

The spiderbot leader hissed in an insectoid way and the other spiderbots chittered angrily. "We are not animals. We have existed for millions of cycles. My children stretch even to the void, though without my guidance," said the spiderbot lady.

"Uh, did you say children?" asked Bumblebee.

"My children, yes...I was among the first. You and your kind seek to remove us, delete us where you see us," said the queen, the gun arm changing to an injector spike.

"Hey, hey, I don't think the spiderbots are that bad. In fact, I have quite a few friends among spiderbots. And my pal, Dune Runner, he's real close to them," said Bumblebee quickly.

The queen glared, her one normal eye glowing red. "Surfacer lies, you seek to remove us, horde the things we need. But you will help us grow..." she said, bringing the injector spike closer.

Suddenly, a series of thuds started to come from above, growing increasingly louder. The spiderbot queen paused and looked up. "What is-" she started before the ceiling broke open and Dune Runner and Morph fell through.

"I told ya we shouldn't have lured de tank near de cracked parts," said Dune Runner.

"Well, we got away from it, didn't we?" said Morph before noticing Bumblebee, "Hi Bumblebee."

A second later, a blue beam hit Morph, blowing him up. "More surfacers," hissed the queen bot angrily.

Dune Runner turned around and saw the spiderbot queen. "Holy jalapeno," said Dune Runner, "Er, am I right in guessing dat you're the queen of the spiderbots?"

The queen bot hissed angrily. "You come to destroy my children..." she said, her spike arm transforming into what looked like a version of the NSC 'arclight' Gatling laser

"Me? Destroy spiderbots? I wouldn't even if I could," said Dune, "They're a pretty friendly bunch, if a little obsessed with dismantling. They take a liking to me too."

At that, one of Matt's spiderbots peered out from over Dune Runner's shoulder. It had gone into sleep mode in Dune Runner when he had been in vehicle mode and had spent all the time trying to get out. It looked around at all the bots before saying 'Uh oh' and trying to get back in Dune Runner.

However, it wasn't quick enough to avoid the queen's gaze. "What is that?" she demanded.

Dune Runner said, "Dat just one of da bots from the cap's ship," picking up the struggling spiderbot.

The queen shot forward and grabbed Dune Runner's wrist with its humanoid hand before gently pulling the spiderbot away. "My Child...the void's radiation is all over you," she said in a cooing voice, ignoring the Cybertronians and the reintegrating Morph.

"Yeah, Matt and the gang have really been everywhere," said Dune Runner, "Ask dis little guy if ya don't believe me."

The queen looked at the spiderbot before looking at them. "It says you are weird...but friends," it said after a minute.

"Yeah, we sometimes get that, particularly with him," said Dune Runner, pointed at Morph who was regenerated, but a little woozy.

"I like potato chips," said Morph.

The queen said "If my children...even my wayward ones trust you...then so do I," she said.

"Uh, great," said Bumblebee, "So, uh, how do we get out of here?"

"What's de rush?" asked Dune Runner, "These guys aren't bad."

"I know, but we need to get Waspinator. He's reverted again," said Bumblebee.

"The dark surfacer's new pet?" said the queen in amusement

"Dark surfacer?" asked Dune Runner.

"The one who calls himself Shockwave and Longarm," said the queen.

"Shockwave's down here?" shouted Bumblebee, "We better get to Wasp. There's no telling how much that creep's twisting his mind worse than it is."

"He will be too busy pulling himself together," said the queen with sadistic amusement.

"Oh, right," said Bumblebee, "Wasp isn't really that bad a bot. It's just that Shockwave kinda manipulated me into framing Wasp for being a traitor. I mean, Shockwave's mostly at fault, but Wasp's still mad at me."

The queen said, "I have watched this one for cycles. He is cruel...but he is arrogant and easy to manipulate himself if you know the words."

"Huh? Oh, you mean his ego," said Bumblebee, "Yeah, I know how to push a Decepticon's buttons. You ever hear of a guy named Blitzwing?"

"Yes...some of my children infested their command center during the war...he is the one who argues with himself, is he not?" said the queen, "The tunnels of my domain are a maze...filled with things much more...inhospitable then myself."

"Uh, that was a joke, right?" asked Dune Runner.

"Of course not," said the queen in surprise, adding coldly, "This is not your world of convenience."

"Yeah, uh, we're just gonna pick up Wasp and find a space bridge back home," said Dune Runner.

"You will never reach the surface. The only viable way is underwater...or through this 'Shockwave'," said the Queen.

"Underwater's not bad," said Dune Runner, "I spent me whole life by the ocean. I'm an ATV too."

The queen made a clicking noise and a spiderbot staggered up. It was covered in tooth marks and missing a leg, sparking from the stump. "This one led 200 of my children to clear the waters."

"Uh, we'll go through Shockwave then," said Bumblebee, "Besides, I owe that cyclops some payback."

"My children will lead you through the tunnels. I wish you well," said the queen.

"Thanks for de help," said Dune Runner.

"I want a popsicle," said Morph.

"Eh, ignore about 80% of what he says," said Dune Runner.

The queen looked at Morph. "I wasn't listening to even 10%. Go now...and if you lead the fat-chinned one down here...I will come for you," she said.

"Sentinel Prime? Oh, like he'd listen to us," said Bumblebee.

"Yeah, especially since he's headless right now," said Morph.

Dune Runner stared at Morph and said, "Say what?"

The queen stopped before looking at the spiderbot that had come with Dune and bursting out laughing. "I will save that memory to permanent memory...for when I need amusement," she said,

"He made you laugh, we're off the hook," said Bumblebee quickly before pushing Dune Runner back up the tunnel, grabbing Morph along the way.

A dozen golden spiderbots were waiting, their leader saying, "Follow for safety."

"Sure, lead the way," said Bumblebee.

Meanwhile, Matt was not in as much ease, being reminded of the alien movies as he crawled through the circuitry vents. "What would a race of giant robots even need a ventilation system for anyways?" Matt asked himself, "It's not like they can get too hot or they run out of fresh air." Matt turned on his comm. "Optimus...anyone? Help," he said, saying the last word in a small worried voice.

Suddenly, the air around Matt started blowing past very fast. "Oh yeah, that's why they don't guard these things," said Matt before he was sent spiraling through the ventilation system.

Starscream laughed his head off as he watched the weird little organic blown out of the vent like a bullet from a gun to splat against the far wall, cartoon style. "If nothing else, it's at least good entertainment," said Starscream.

Matt turned to see he'd ended up back where Scorponok was, who didn't look so well. "Ah crap," he said, looking around for any sign of Megatron before looking to Scorponok and shifting to dragon to pull him loose.

Scorponok winced at Matt pulled out the swords pinning his legs to the wall. "So much for staying out of combat," he said.

"Yeah...where's Optimus and Lughead?" said Matt, throwing the swords aside and shrinking back to human form.

"I think they ended up on the other side of the ship," said Scorponok before his legs gave out and he fell forward.

Matt jumped back to avoid being flattened before a shudder indicated that the ship had jumped again before a louder clunk was heard. "What was that?" asked Matt.

"Don't know," said Scorponok, "But it came from outside the ship."

Matt walked to a panel and said, "Can you get exterior view on this?"

Scorponok reached his servo up and punched in a small code. The panel slid aside to show a porthole. The view showed dozens upon dozens of wrecked NSC and Decepticon ships...as well as wrecked Cybertronians in vehicle mode. "Junkyard," said Matt.

"I heard of this place," said Scorponok, "One of the bloodiest battles in the NSC Confrontation."

"Yeah...and first contact...150 NSC ships from the colonial defense force against 3000 Decepticon ships..." said Matt.

"It was said that Megatron himself shuddered when he saw the carnage," said Scorponok, "Of course, that might be just a rumor."

"Yeah...the NSC fleet got 1800 kills before they were finally destroyed or disabled. They say that some of these ships still work," said Matt.

"Too bad we can't get onto one of them," said Scorponok.

"This place must have controllable escape shuttle or something," said Matt, before trying his comm. again. "Optimus...We might have a way off this ship...Optimus?"

This time, he got a response, "Matt, I just managed to disable Lugnut, but not for long. What's your idea?"

"We're in Junkyard...if we can find a ship with life support we can use it to get out of here," said Matt.

"The docking bridge might be able to get us there. But we better hurry. We don't know when Omega will transwarp again," said Optimus.

"What about that stupid talking head? I have a feeling he is the one responsible for my quick exit from the vents," said Matt.

"Starscream's mostly harmless without his body," said Optimus, "If you can just disconnect him from Omega's systems, he won't be able to stand in our way."

"I doubt he'll let us...plus Megatron's probably still after me," said Matt.

"This is a window of opportunity. We need to jump through it before it closes," said Optimus.

"I'll take any chance to get away for the crazy helicopter guy," said Matt.

"Good, I'll go the cargo hold and get the bridge ready. Disable Starscream and get us close enough to a working ship. Follow my signal to the hold and we'll get through before we transwarp. Optimus out."

Matt nodded. "Come on, scorpy...let's go play a game I call 'kick the talking head'."

"I'm afraid I'm not in any condition for 'kicking'," said Scorponok, mech fluid running from his legs.

"Then turn into your other form. You get more legs that way," said Matt.

"I'll try," said Scorponok. With a few creaking groans, he transformed into scorpion mode, though that form looked pretty banged up too.

"Let's go," said Matt after a minute.

Scorponok and Matt went into the bridge. "Halt, don't take one step further," called Starscream, "I still have control of this ship. I am more powerful than both of you put together!"

Matt walked up to him and turned into dragon form. "I reckon I could swallow him whole...what do you think?" he said to Scorponok.

"I wouldn't recommend it," said Scorponok, "He's bound to give you the worse case of indigestion you ever had."

Matt nodded before picking up Starscream in his jaws, aiming at what looked like a garbage chute and spitting Starscream at it. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS! OW-OW-OW-OW-OW-OW!" Starscream's cries grew gradually fainter.

Matt smirked and looked at the controls before shrugging and pressing the buttons like he was playing a keyboard. The lights outside Omega Supreme flashed on and off a few times. Then the window's wipers turned on. "Wait, why are there wipers on a starship?" asked Matt. Scorponok just shrugged, as best as a scorpion can.

Matt finally hit the controls and a scanner turned on over the window, showing the ships. Finally, it settled on an old colonial militia combat cruiser. From what Matt saw the crew had cut and run when an EM missile had stunned the ship's systems.

"Ok, I just need to move the ship closer to it and we're virtually home free," said Matt.

Matt looked at the controls before hitting a random button. A line of text said, "Please do not push that again."

"Ok, scorpy, you move the ship," said Matt.

Scorponok turned back to robot form and limped over before pressing a few buttons. The ship shuddered before moving closer to the colonial cruiser.

"Great," said Matt, "Just a little more and we'll be in docking range."

"I doubt you will be leaving," said a voice behind them.

Matt felt his heart drop to the bottom of his stomach. He slowly turned around to see Megatron behind him. "Can't you just bugger off?" said Matt, before he could stop his mouth.

"Since I shall be using this ship to conquer Cybertron once I stop its random transwarping, I don't think I'll be going anywhere, and neither are you." Then Megatron raised up one servo to swat Matt.

Matt spat as hot a plasma ball as he could at the hand in question before dodging back.

Megatron grasped his wounded hand before growling, "You'll pay for that, organic."

"Have to see me first," said Matt before spitting another blast in Megatron's face and flying past the annoyed leader. Megatron roared in pain and fury as he covered his optics with one hand and swung at Matt with the other. By sheer chance, he managed to hit Matt and send him smashing into the wall. Matt yelled in pain as a nasty snapping noise was heard and he slid down the wall. "Bloody robot…" he said weakly.

Once his vision cleared, Megatron noticed Matt lying on the ground, his wing sticking out at an unnatural angle. He smiled and said, "I told you no one insults me with impunity."

Matt snarled, his eyes blazing red. "And nobody hurts me," he snarled.

"You think you can intimidate me, you're sorely mistaken," said Megatron, "How about I remove your pain...permanently?" He aimed his fusion cannon which started to warm up.

'Matt' was also readying a dark energy blast when Scorponok ruined the standoff by grabbing him and turning to cobra jet to pull him out the way. "Let go of me, you tin can. Don't you know who I am? Didn't Matt warn you? I'm...gnrk," said 'Matt as Scorponok accidentally flew too high and Matt's head had a close encounter with the top of a doorway.

"Get back here!" yelled Megatron before running out into the hall and transforming into vehicle mode, flying after them.

'Matt' managed to shake the stars from his vision and saw Megatron before spitting a null plasma blast at him.

Megatron dodged the blast, which caused a large explosion that nearly blew Omega's hull open. It had the added bonus of temporarily knocking Megatron to the floor for a few seconds.

"Yeah, Draconus...you still got it." said 'Matt' to himself, looking at his claws with a smug look. Unfortunately, Draconus was too busy praising himself to look ahead, resulting in another collision between his cranium and the ceiling.

Optimus was extending the bridge towards the cruiser when Scorponok arrived, shutting the blast door and depositing a dazed dragon Matt down who simply said, "Burble?"

"What- Never mind, there's no time for that," said Optimus, "The plasmadynamic thruster I planted on Omega's about to go off again. If we don't get onto that other ship, we'll be in another part of the galaxy." Scorponok grabbed Matt by the tail and ran aboard, dragging the dazed Matt who became more dazed as his head bounced off a bump on the floor.

However, escape was not going to be that easy. Megatron charged into the cargo hold in robot mode. "You shall not escape me, Autobots!" yelled Megatron before swinging his swords at Optimus.

Optimus pulled out his energy axe just in time to block the slash. "Get to the ship!" he called out, struggling to hold the deadly blades away from him.

Scorponok nodded before running across the docking bridge. Matt followed after him before looking at the human-sized hatch. "Hmm...this could be trouble."

"Oh great, how are we going to get on now?" asked Scorponok.

"Hang on, I'll turn the ship around so you can get into the cargo hatch," said Matt before going through the docking hatch.

Scorponok looked to see transwarp energy arcs flickering around the hull of Omega. "Optimus, it's going to jump!" he called.

Optimus noticed as well and said, "Enjoy your trip, Megatron." He kicked Megatron, which pushed back far enough for Optimus to transform to truck mode and rev down the docking bridge, just as Matt was moving it around. Scorponok switched to cobra jet mode and flew out at the same time as Optimus.

Megatron got up and ran towards them...too late as Omega Supreme vanished, "NOOOOOO!" shouted the Decepticon leader, he slammed his fist against the wall, causing a sizeable dent which the Allspark energy quickly healed, "I shall have my revenge on the lot of you. You'll rue the day you came into existence," growled Megatron.

Lugnut staggered into the hold, tied up with cabling. "I will crush them when I am free!" he yelled.

Megatron and said, "Too late, they're already gone." However, this was not a complete loss. He had overheard what the red and blue Autobot said about the plasmadynamic thruster. 'So that's what is causing the random transwarps. If we could just remove it...' Megatron turned to Lugnut and said, "Actually, I have another assignment for you."

Meanwhile, Chloe and Prowl were heading through the planet landscape. Considering how the planet was being carpetbombed, that really put an urgency in their flight. It was a good thing that Autobots can steer themselves, as Chloe was busy trying to contact one of the NSC ships.

"I repeat...friendlies on site, you arseholes!" she screamed into her comm. as the horizon lit up as another railgun round landed.

"Yeah right, you could just be disguising your voice," said the person on the other end, "Let's see some ID."

"There's no visual you git. For the last time, Lt Chloe Lynch, CPS mercenary...DON;T MAKE ME COME UP THERE!" she yelled.

"Names mean nothing, how about ID numbers?" said the other person.

"Mercenaries don't have ID's," said Chloe in an annoyed voice.

"Huh, didn't think you'd get that one right," said the person on the other end, "What's your current location?"

"About to have a bloody railgun hit us on the head," said Chloe sarcastically.

"I hate to interrupt," said Prowl, "But we might have more urgent problems on our hands. I'm sure one of those Decepticons is after us."

Chloe looked around the woods and said, "Stand by," before hanging up. "If it's that bitch, Nightbird..." she began.

Suddenly, a Nighthawk zoomed out of nowhere and fired at the duo. Chloe and Prowl separated just in time. Nightbird landed between them and took up a fighting pose before delivering a kick to Prowl's chestplate.

"You're coming with me, Autobot," said Nightbird as her dagger snicked into her hand.

Suddenly Chloe in full dragon form tackled her from behind and sunk her claws in, sending a nasty charge through them. Nightbird winced before reaching around and trying to slash Chloe with her dagger.

Chloe snarled before biting down on the offending arm's wrist and biting down till metal creaked. Nightbird cried out in pain but used Chloe's grip to her advantage by pulling her off using the arm Chloe was biting and throwing her forward.

Chloe immediately was back on all fours, snarling. "I've had it up to here with you, you tin can," she snarled.

"You took the words right out of my speech synthesizer, you repulsive reptile," growled Nightbird as she took out her energon sais.

Chloe snarled before sending a blast of lightning into a tree trunk next to Nightbird, causing it to explode into lethal splinters. "It takes more than that to intimidate me," said Nightbird before throwing several throwing stars at Chloe.

Chloe dodged all but one star that shot through her left wing membrane before she jumped forward, grabbed Nightbird and bit her shoulder and tore a small chunk loose. Nightbird cried out in pain and threw a stunning punch at Chloe's head. Chloe yelped before throwing Nightbird into a clearing.

Chloe then pounced on Nightbird, prepared to claw her chestplate off until she got to her spark chamber. However, Nightbird expected that and when Chloe landed on her, she dug a pair of throwing stars between Chloe's rib, barely missing her lungs. Chloe gurgled and fell sideways, the pain shocking her.

Nightbird laughed and knocked Chloe off of her. She extended her dagger and said, "I'm not as in into trophies as Lockdown, but I'll enjoy mounting your head on the wall of my chambers."

Before she could bring her blades down, Prowl locked his own weapon, causing the weapons to lock.

"Out of my way, Autobot," growled Nightbird.

"Sorry, but an Autobot's duty is to protect life," said Prowl.

Nightbird glared. "Then join her..." she began, readying the same trick that she had pulled on Chloe before a lightning bolt shot into her back from behind, sustained for at least a minute. Nightbird cried out before her body forced her into stasis lock to prevent a lethal overcharge.

Chloe staggered to her feet and came over before getting ready to being her paw down with lethal force on the Decepticon's face.

"Chloe, there's no time," said Prowl, "We need to get off this planet before this part is bombed. And you're critically wounded, you need medical attention."

Chloe wasn't listening but the sheer pain from her wound forced her down to a laying position and into human form, where the wounds looked even worse. Her wrist comp started beeping, the words 'emergency beacon enabled' flashing on its screen.

Prowl picked up Chloe and spoke into her wrist comp, "Listen to me, Chloe Lynch is critically wounded. She needs medical attention immediately. Never mind who I am, just get up onto your ship ASAP."

"Do not move...locking in with warp beam," said a voice on the other end. Nightbird woke up in time to see her adversaries vanish in a blaze of light

"NO!" she yelled. However, she noticed that the explosions were getting closer. "You won't be so lucky next time," she muttered before she changed to jet mode and flew up through the sky and out of the planet's atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Bumblebee's group was being led through the tunnels by their 'escort' Every so often the group would halt while something unseen would go by at a junction. "So, how far we under the surface anyways?" asked Dune Runner.

"I dunno...probably hundreds of feet," said Bumblebee

"And you say this is the shortest way back up?" asked Dune Runner.

The lead spiderbot said, "Not shortest...safest."

"Ok, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know the details," said Dune Runner.

The spiderbots finally stopped at a hatch. "Tank bot this way...no more danger," said the bot.

"Um...yay?" said Morph uncertainly.

The hatch opened up into one of the tunnel's still worth security...which meant that Shockwave could see them coming out into the tunnels.

"So what's the plan?" asked Dune Runner.

"We find Wasp, make a break for the surface, and use the nearest space bridge to get back to Earth."

Dune Runner considered it for a moment and said, "I like it, simple, easy to remember."

Shockwave however was watching as the motley band headed into range of a camera view. Of course, he knew Bumblebee, but the four-armed bot with the space slug was unknown to him.

He also knew the insectoid face that suddenly filled the camera view before the screen became static. The local spiderbot hive had been a thorn in his side since he had been forced deeper to avoid the few patrols sent into the sewers after him.

"Hmm, if I let those three leave, they'll tell the other Autobots that I'm down here. Then I'll have to move into a new lair," said Shockwave, "Of course, that needs nipping in the data-bud right away."

He looked over at Waspinator and got an idea. He would probably have to move eventually and had been planning to do that as soon as he had seen the size of the local hive. And as soon as their queen got annoyed enough, he'd be drowning in spiderbots.

"Waspinator, I believe that Bumblebee is trying to leave, and he's in a relatively spiderbot-free zone," said Shockwave.

"Waspinatoe get to kill Bumblebot?" said Waspinator.

"Yes, you can even kill his four-eyed friends," said Shockwave.

Waspinator grinned...or at least Shockwave thought he did. It was hard to tell with the insectoid features. "Wazpinator make Bumblebot wish he was never protoformed!" said Waspinator before transforming to wasp mode and flying off.

Shockwave considered making for a tunnel closer to the surface while Waspinator was distracting the Autobot idiots but realized that a good first mistake would be to trust the glitchhead with the job solo. He sighed and shifted to tank mode, rumbling off after Waspinator.

Meanwhile, the trio was still following their spiderbot guides. "So, how are we gonna find Wasp?" asked Morph.

"If he's still ticked, he'll find us," said Bumblebee.

The spiderbots came to a halt at a junction before one scuttled round a corner and a pulse of energy blew it apart. "What was that?" asked Morph.

His question was soon answered when a giant green wasp flew around the corner. "BUMBLEBOT!" yelled Waspinator before firing at Bumblebee.

The rest of the 10 or so spiderbots threw themselves at Waspinator, a quarter of them peppered with laser blasts while the others were torn off and thrown with smashing force into the walls or ground.

"Is it me, or are these spiderbots more fragile than the ones we've got back on Earth?" asked Dune Runner.

Morph said, "Matt once said he hated it how the spiderbots stole armor to make more of themselves."

"That would explain- WHOA!" Dune Runner bent backwards to avoid being hit by a blast that came from the cannon of a tank that was rolling towards them, one that was a much different design to the one they met in the sewer.

Waspinator chose that moment to lunge at Bumblebee, forcing him to the floor and aiming his forelegs.

"Wasp, you don't wanna do this. Shockwave's the one you want!" cried Bumblebee, "Can't we just forgive and forget?"

"Wazpinator lost cycles of his life in stockades because of Bumblebot," said Waspinator, his forearms charging.

"And Shockwave is-"

"No more lies!" shouted Waspinator. He was about to fire when Dune Runner tackled him.

Waspinator practically howled in anger before trying to push Dune Runner off. "Yo gonna listen to da mon...he knows what he talkin' about," said Dune Runner.

"Four-arms not get in way of Waspinator's revenge!" yelled Waspinator as he tried to get around Dune Runner.

Bumblebee was backing up when he bumped into something. He turned to see Shockwave. "Bumblebee, it's been a while," said Shockwave before swiping Bumblebee over.

"Yeah, haven't seen you since Megatron's space bridge plan went up in smoke," said Bumblebee, extending his stingers.

Shockwave said, "A minor setback, I assure you," before aiming his cannon at Bumblebee, "And I think you'll find that stingers are not very sufficient for my armor."

"Maybe not normally, but I got an upgrade to battle-grade," said Bumblebee before shooting at Shockwave.

Shockwave was knocked over before he got up. "Please..." he said aiming his spectrum cannon and firing. Bumblebee dodged and transformed to car mode before charging as Shockwave. However, Shockwave was prepared and had pulled out the Magnus Hammer and used it to smack Bumblebee into a wall.

"Such a shame. You should have thought a little further then Wasp, jumping to conclusions," taunted Shockwave, walking towards Bumblebee. "You know, I ought to thank you for helping me to get up to the position that I had. Head of Autobot Intel has so many more benefits than a simple intelligence officer. I suppose I ought to thank that idiot Wasp. Drawing all suspicion from me to him was protoform-play with his obnoxious attitude. Next to him, who would suspect..." Shockwave shifted to his other robot mode, "Good old Longarm?"

Unknown to Shockwave, Waspinator could see all this and was staring in shock, his own personal reality where Bumblebee had been the cause of his crappy life tumbling down. Now, some people who get culture shock go into catatonia, but some lash out at the cause...like right now. "WAZPINATOR SMASH TANK BOT!" he yelled, blasting Shockwave in the back.

Shockwave cried out in pain and surprise as he was knocked forward. He shifted back to his Decepticon form and said, "Waspinator, what's glitching in your head now?"

"Long-bot and Shock-bot same bot. Shock-bot is two-face who set up Wazp. NOW WAZPINATOR DESTROY TWO-FACE FOR RUINING WAZP'S LIFE!" Waspinator jumped on top of Shockwave, with the intent of clawing the double agent's single optic out.

Shockwave however still had his cannon and fired point blank into Waspinator's chestplate with enough force to have the Decepticon bounce off the roof.

"It's a pity you found out about that," said Shockwave, "You could have been of great use. But nothing can be done with an unhinged freak like you." Shockwave turned his cannon up to full power and aimed it at Waspinator. "Perhaps you'll find life more favorable...in the Well of All Sparks," he said before getting ready to pull the trigger.

Suddenly a hail of green plasma bolts, a dual blast of stinger energy, and even some viral blasts hit Shockwave. Shockwave was nearly knocked to his knees by the barrage. He turned around to see that Dune Runner and Bumblebee had attacked him with all their weapons. The space slug had been replaced by a cyborg being whose six arms were crackling with viral energy.

"Yo...I t'ink you should drop dat weapon," said Dune Runner, the barrels on his plasma blasters glowing with readied blasts.

Shockwave winced as sparks leapt from the cracks on his back. He had already sustained plenty of damage and the odds of him withstanding another barrage were against him. "I shall not forget this," said Shockwave before changing to tank mode and firing at the ceiling.

The group jumped out the way as rubble from the new hole fell down. Shockwave stopped for a parting shot. "I would not stick around. I doubt the queen will care who she catches for her dead drones." At that he vanished but as his engine noise vanished a new noise became apparent...the scuttling noise of hundreds of metallic legs.

"Ya know, I t'ink I've had my fill of Cybertron for one solar cycle," said Dune Runner, "Can we go back to Earth now?"

"Yeah, sure, just help me carry Wasp," said Bumblebee.

The little spiderbot on Dune Runner's shoulder said, "Running time!" and jumped up through the hole Shockwave had made.

Morph said, "Should we really follow that Shockwave guy?..." he said before a practical sea of spiderbots came round the far corner. "...never mind," added Morph.

"Shockwave can wait another solar cycle," said Bumblebee, "We need to get Wasp out of here."

Meanwhile, the little spiderbot already had a plan...mother would send all her spiderbots to catch them unless something happened to frighten them off. To this end he scuttled over to one of the few security sensors still linked to elite guard HQ and began making quite a few rude gestures. (getting sentinel to come down after him...so that the newcomers would scare its bro's away

Meanwhile, the little spiderbot already had a plan. Mother would send all her spiderbots to catch them unless something happened to frighten them off. To this end, he scuttled over to one of the few security sensors still linked to Elite Guard HQ and began making quite a few rude gestures.

A tech-bot said "Erm...you may not wanna see this then." before punching up the view from one of the few security cams the native bots hadn't cannibalized. It showed a very modern-looking spiderbot writing 'Sentinel Prime is a smeghead...nyer nyer.'

Sentinel's optic twitched slightly as he said through gritted teeth, "I don't care, it's just one spiderbot acting silly..."

The spiderbot had obviously hacked some two-way comm.. before some text appeared 'You think that's bad...now for the main show' before some footage from a street sensor, showing some spiderbots playing football with Sentinel Prime's head.

"That's it!" yelled Sentinel, "I'm going right down there and tear that little cretin's legs off!"

Some new text appeared, saying 'Bring it on, star cruiser chin...I'm in sewer sector 3-b.'

"Jazz, reschedule my appointments, I've got a bug to squash."

"But SP," said Jazz, "Don't you think you should-"

"I wasn't asking for an opinion, I was giving an order!" snapped Sentinel Prime, "Now do as you're told or you can go fix space bridges for the rest of your lifecycle!"

Back in the sewer, the spiderbot couldn't help but feel smug. His human boss never said how useful being a pain in the servo could be. It then turned to see Dune and the others run below it, followed by a good number of his cousins. Then it spent a message to them, "Bigger pain coming, more fun to torture."

The spiderbots stopped before a warrior bot said, "Queen want surfacers in bits for assimilation."

The 'Matt' spiderbot then realized these ones were not as 'fun-loving' as its companions back home so it tried a different tag. "Big one bring lots of surfacers...squish hive."

That did make the other spiderbots pause. "Threats to hive must be terminated," beeped a warrior bot.

The spiderbot signed before trying something, making a hologram of a sewer cleaner tank appear, and hoping its cousins were as thick as they were boring.

They apparently were because they immediately started running away from it. The spiderbot was congratulating itself when it realized why it might have been a good idea to keep them around for a while more.

Just then, Sentinel Prime came stomping down the tunnel. He was expecting a fight, but he saw the spiderbots running away instead. "Heh, just as I thought. Those computer mites are all talk and no backframe," said Sentinel.

Sentinel then turned to see Bumblebee and the others. "What the glitch are you doing here?" he said angrily.

"Uh, would you believe we had a space bridge malfunction that zapped us down here?" said Bumblebee, motioning behind his back for the others to hide Wasp.

"Why would I believe..." he said before stopping and turning to see the gang's spiderbot, staring at him.

"Er, listen, you probably want us gone and we wanna go back to Earth, so how about you just send us on the next space bridge, okay?" said Dune Runner.

Sentinel Prime wasn't in the mood however. "You turn up out of nowhere barely a week after Ultra Magnus is sent reduced to stasis lock? You're coming with me," he said angrily before stopping as the little spiderbot made an angry noise.

"Uh, speaking of Ultra Magnus, the guy who tried to slag him went that way," said Bumblebee, pointing at the collapsed tunnel Shockwave escaped through.

"Hah...just what I'd expect you to say," Sentinel Prime said before the spiderbot interrupted him with a farting noise.

Sentinel glared at him. "I dunno who you think you are and I don't even know who you are...but I'm sure I can get some answers."

The spiderbot squeaked out, "The Ultimate Answer of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42."

This was the final straw and Sentinel readied his lance. "I've had about eno..." before his head was blown off for the second time that day by the spiderbot's pulse laser. Sentinel glared up at the others and said, "Well, don't just stand there. Put my head back on my body."

The spiderbot however had a better idea...some of the scavenger spiderbots that stayed on the surface had been watching and now they had made their chance...adding the insult that they were the same ones who had stolen his head a while ago, one with a security siren welded to its top.

The group just watched as the salvage spiderbots carried Sentinel's head off, the siren bot on his head, setting its police siren off as they went.

After a few moments of confused silence, Bumblebee said, "You know what, let's just say he gave us the go-ahead and take a space bridge back to Earth."

Dune Runner said, "Yeah...I don't t'ink we wanna be around when he gets his head together."

Meanwhile, Matt had managed to get the ship fully running again. It was a good thing that it had been hermetically sealed when it was abandoned, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to breathe on it.

Matt was watching the two Cybertronians through the cameras in the cargo hold. "Ok, gents...we still have a way to go...we should be ok as long as..." he began before seeing several 'wrecks' power up. "...we don't run into marauders."

"Marauders? As in Decepticons?" asked Optimus.

"No...marauders as in people who will skin me alive and use you for spare parts," said Matt, trying to get the ship's auto-cannons online without success. The marauder ships were not in such difficulties as one of the cruiser's artillery guns fired a nuclear shell that narrowly missed.

"Great, can't imagine how this could get any worse," grumbled Matt.

Suddenly, the room behind him lit up with bright blue light before Bumblebee, Dune Runner, PlasMorph, and Waspinator appeared out of nowhere.

"I told you not to press those buttons," said Dune Runner.

"Well, excuse me," said Morph before noticing Matt, "Hi Matt."

Matt glared at Morph. "I spoke too soon," he muttered.

"Uh, where are we now?" asked Bumblebee.

"On board a derelict stabber class cruiser that's all but falling apart and under attack by marauders," said Matt in a manically cheerful voice.

A blast from outside shook everyone on the ship onto the floor. "We're all gonna die, aren't we?" said Bumblebee.

"Most likely...unless we can get guns online..." said Matt as another shot hit the barely functioning shields.

"Can't you run away from these guys?" asked Dune Runner.

"We're barely holding together," said Matt in an annoyed voice.

"Well, there's gotta be someway..." said Dune Runner before Morph started shining blue, "...out?" Suddenly, he and the others started glowing blue as well.

"Oh hell...what now?" said Matt in an annoyed voice when he noticed he was glowing too.

"Residual transwarp energy," said Optimus, "We probably picked it up during all our transwarping."

"Oh great, we're gonna jump again?" asked Matt.

"No," said Scorponok, "It shouldn't be activating like this. We're not jumping, we're being pulled."

A monotone voice said, "Warning...core damage detected...meltdown in 0.4 minutes."

Matt moaned. "Oh hell," he said as the energy went critical.

To the marauders, it appeared that the ship had taken on too much damage and its energy core exploded. It robbed them of a hijacking, but at least they got a kick out of it. What they didn't know was that its small crew had disappeared before the ship exploded.

Matt came to in the dirt of some planet, groaning. "I hate everything," he groaned.

"Hey, it's safer than an exploding ship here, isn't it?" said Bumblebee. He got up and noticed that the ground they were on wasn't very stable. It was a small floating island amid other floating islands, hovering over what looked like the mantle of a planet. "On second, probably not much safer."

"Ah crud...this planet's about as stable as I am," said Matt, peering over the edge.

"So why did we end up here?" asked Scorponok.

"Who knows? Who cares? What's important is how are we gonna get the hell out of here?" said Matt.

"Who says you're gonna leave?" Matt looked up to see Sideways sitting on a rock floating above them. "I put a lot of hard work in arranging this little party, even longer considering how you've scattered yourselves across the galaxy. It would be so rude to just leave now, wouldn't it?" said Sideways.

Matt said, "Yeah...it is," before throwing a plasma orb at Sideways, blowing the floating rock to dust.

Sideways easily jumped from the rock over to a larger island long before the plasma orb destroyed his previous perch. "Relax, meatbag," said Sideways, "I'm not going to have my revenge on you...yet."

"I can't say the same. Get down here and take your blasting like a man!" retorted Matt angrily

Sideways smirked and said, "I'm not a man, remember? Thank the Allspark for that."

"I don't care...get down here so I can put you out of my misery!" said Matt, throwing another plasma orb.

Sideways shot the orb before it got too far, causing an explosion that pushed Matt's rock away from the others. "Wait your turn," said Sideways, "I promise I'll get to you as soon as my previous business is done."

"Ok, sarge," said Matt, his eyes spinning.

"Now then, where was I?" said Sideways to himself, "Ah, yes, I remember. I originally wanted to separate your big group so that the fight would be better on my side. However, one of you didn't go where I wanted you to go."

"Who are you talking about?" said Optimus.

"You, of course," said Sideways.

"Me? What did I ever do to you?" asked Optimus. "Well, technically, it wasn't you. I assume that you're all familiar with the concepts of multiverses and alternate realities," said Sideways.

Matt was unable to resist going "Dur…" behind Sideways.

Sideways ignored Matt and continued, "Well, I'm not exactly from this universe. My body may have been made here, but that's not where my spark came from. I came from a different universe, one where our good friend Optimus Prime blasted me through with a weapon called the Requiem Blaster. I swore revenge, but I didn't get that opportunity for a long time. My spark got here by literally freak accident. It happened when Starscream and Galvatron ripped a hole in space and time with- Oh, but I'm just boring you, aren't I? Anyways, when I went through the rift, a small part of my spark copied itself and detatched, becoming a spark of its own. I drifted between the multiversal gaps for some time until I was pulled out here."

"Nobody cares," heckled Matt.

Sideways glared back at Matt and said, "Well, you'll care about this. Because I'm now going to extinguish Optimus Prime's spark right here."

"I don't really understand what you just said," said Optimus as he got out his axe, "But if my counterpart can beat you, so can I."

Matt ignited a plasma orb that looked inky black. "...And null plasma will really put a dent in you," he said.

"I wouldn't do that," said Sideways, "If I don't set it off in your face, it'll most likely hit one of your friends."

"Oh...you like nuclear tans," retorted Matt which made everyone sweatdrop a bit.

"Be that as it may, I came prepared just in case you happened to end up here anyways," said Sideways before throwing a small metal box at Matt.

Matt looked at the box. "What the smeg's this?" he said, kicking it before keeling over as there was a flash of light.

"Just something that'll keep your dragon powers out of this," said Sideways, "The paralysis is a bonus."

Matt just said, "Burble."

"We're not just gonna let you slag Prime," said Bumblebee.

"Of course not," said Sideways, "But how many of you are in any condition to fight back?"

Bumblebee stopped at that. Despite everything, Sideways had a good point. The two groups' separate misadventures had taken their tolls. Waspinator was still unconscious and not likely to start fighting when he woke back up. Scorponok had taken a major beating from Megatron. Bumblebee also had a few cracks and dents where Shockwave knocked him into the wall. And Morph...apparently got so worn out that he was taking a nap.

Sideways smirked as that dawned on Bumblebee. "That's right. I'm in control here," he said.

"If that's so, then why don't you have the spark to take me on yourself?" challenged Optimus.

"Oh, I intend to," said Sideways before jumping to Optimus' island and hitting him with a roundhouse kick.

Optimus had barely gotten up when Sideways grabbed him and punched him again before firing a shower of laser bolts. Optimus cried out in pain before swinging his axe at Sideways. The motortrike easily avoided the swings before punching Optimus in the elbow and making him drop his axe. "Pathetic," said Sideways, "Hard to believe a washout like you could be any kind of leader."

"That's because he's been fighting all day, ya slag heap!" said Bumblebee, firing a stinger blast.

Sideways barely dodged the zap. "Mind your own business," said Sideways, "Such as keeping yourself from falling." He blasted the bottom of Bumblebee's island, causing it to become very unstable. Bumblebee managed to grab onto one of the larger floating rocks just in time.

Sideways however walked towards Optimus, charging up a deadly level blast. "I'm getting bored now. What's say I finish this if you beg?" he taunted.

Optimus, who was on his knees, glared back at Sideways and said, "I will never to the likes of you."

"Ok then, say goodbye, fire truck cab," said Sideways before pointing his blaster at Optimus' head, "No, seriously, I want to hear you say it." Optimus remained silent. "Well, if you won't say it, then I will," said Sideways. He put one foot on Optimus' chest and pushed him back until he was upright, "Goodbye."

Suddenly, a plasma blast blew the tip off his blaster and another two slammed into his side, knocking him flying. "Goodbye, mon," said Dune Runner.

Sideways glared at Dune Runner and said, "Keep out of this, beach boy. This doesn't concern you."

"It does when ya hurt my friends," said Dune Runner before his railing opened up to reveal smaller blasters that fired at Sideways.

Sideways yelped, tapdancing to avoid the smaller laser blasts that bounced around him. "You annoying-" started Sideways before Dune Runner skated forward and started pummeling him with all four arms.

Sideways staggered back under a floating island. Dune Runner looked up before firing a hail of blasts into it.

Sideways smirked and said, "All those eyes and you're still a lousy shot."

"Wasn't aimin' at ya," said Dune Runner.

Sideways looked confused before some pebbles started to bounce off his shoulders and head. Sideways looked up to see the island coming apart. "Oh...slag," he said before close to a couple of hundred tons of granite fell on him.

Dune Runner holstered his plasma blasters and said, "That'll teach that green snake." He looked around and called, "Is everyone alright?"

Matt said from where he was face down in the dirt, "Fine...but I think a worm's gone up my nose..." he went wide eyed at a snapping noise and said weakly, "It's not a worm."

"A little banged up," said Optimus, "But nothing Ratchet can't fix."

"Ok, but how are we gonna get outta here now?" asked Bumblebee, who was now on a more solid island.

Matt said in a nasal voice, "Fly...someone get this thing out, I think it's trying to find my brain."

Morph suddenly woke up and asked, "What did I miss?"

"Never mind, get that...thing out of Matt's nose," said Dune Runner, "I'm gonna see if I can get any signals."

Morph waddled over to Matt with what looked like pliers coming out of his tech-pack while Dune Runner listened out, not really expecting to get any messages. He was therefore shocked when a voice said "...and we need to track those damn ninja bot...what's that bike saying?"

"Hello? Is anyone out there?" asked Dune Runner.

"What the? Who the hell is that?" said the voice

"Uh, sorry to interrupt whatever's going on, but we've got a Captain Matthew Lynch who needs some medical attention.

There was a slurping noise and Morph said, "Aw...it's a Fury worm. It's so cu...ARGHH...IT'S ON MY FACE!"

"Uh, make that 'moderate medical attention'," said Dune Runner.

"Erm...we have a Lieutenant Lynch in med bay here," said the voice.

"It wouldn't happen to be his sister, Chloe, would it?" asked Dune Runner.

"That's the name we had down. She's in the surgical bay for..." said the voice before Matt grabbed his own comm. and yelled "WHO DARED?"

The comm. screeched with feedback for a few seconds before the person on the other end said, "Why don't we bring you aboard first and we'll bring you up to speed?"

"GET YOURT BUTT HERE, PILOT!" screamed Matt before Dune pulled his comm. off him.

"Sorry bout dat...The cap be a little stressed."

"Er, I can see that," said the pilot on the other end, "Who am I speaking to anyways?"

"Well..." started Dune Runner, "I'm sure you've been told about the differences between Autobots and Decepticons..."

A little later, the group were safely aboard an NSC battleship, having been given 'quarters' in an empty fighter bay.

"Thank the Allspark that nightmare's over," sighed Bumblebee.

Prowl had explained his own misadventure in details and listened to the others' stories.

Optimus looked out a porthole at the two other 'Rokh' class battleships flying in formation. "I can't help but feel a little threatened by these ships," said Optimus, "Especially with military defenses so weak on Cybertron."

Scorponok said, "It's not like the Autobots and NSC are enemies. They saved us from that rock."

"True, but if relations between us and them go sour, our homeworld could be in great danger," said Optimus.

"It's already in danger enough," said Bumblebee, "What with Megatron still on Omega Supreme and Shockwave still loose on Cybertron. These guys could help."

"Maybe, but we keep trying to get to Omega through the space bridge. It's only a matter of time before Megatron stops transwarping randomly around the galaxy," said Optimus.

"Well, at the very least we know we won't have to deal with Sideways any time soon," said Prowl.

Dune Runner frowned and said, "I wouldn't say dat. I don't know why, but something tells me it's not over with Sideways."

Back on the shattered planet, the rock pile that Sideways was under suddenly blew apart to reveal a furious Sideways. There were cracks everywhere on his body, even parts where his circuitry was completely exposed. His nanites were working furiously to repair them as Sideways hammered his way out of the rock. "Forget that stupid Optimus," he snarled, "When I get out of here, Dune Runner is mine."

* * *

There's another chapter. This one took a fair amount of editing to get properly together. But I think it's pretty well put together. The Omega Supreme part pretty much sets up how Megatron gets more control over Omega in time for "This Is Why I Hate Machines." The part that took place on Cybertron was a little trickier, but I think it gives a decent explanation for the behavior of the spiderbots. With the Decepticon ninjas, I was originally going to have Bludgeon be the dojo master, but I made it Banzaitron because his name sounds like a good foil to Yoketron's and I have other ideas for Bludgeon. And this chapter also shows that Sideways is the same as his Armada counterpart, or at least is a splinter version of him. And of course, any sci-fi fan can tell where the portal golf part comes from. Anyhow, prepare to see Sideways again soon and he is seething for revenge. Not sure when the next update will be, but it ought to be at least before next weekend. Until then, please review.


	12. Healing Touch

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 12: Healing Touch**

There was a lot of commotion going on at the Autobots' base, for two different reasons. One part was because of what was going on in the 'medical wing'.

Ratchet had not been pleased with the state of the Autobots after their little jaunt across the galaxy.

"Can't you scraplets stay out of a fight for one solar cycle?" snapped Ratchet as he was fixing up Bumblebee's back.

Bumblebee said, "Hey...we didn't ask for the space bridge to glitch up and suck us all in."

"Bumblebee's right, we- Ow!" winced Scorponok.

"And you just stay right there," said Ratchet, "You're not doing any more fighting until you're all healed up and that's final. It's a wonder you haven't gone offline already."

Bumblebee grumbled, "Optimus and Dune Runner were beat up worse but they're out."

"That's because Optimus is the leader. He has to keep up, no matter what I tell him," said Ratchet, "And Dune Runner has an Allspark fragment. It heals him from anything he gets."

There was a buzzing noise heard from the far end of the base and what sounded like mad laughter. "...and what is that guy, Jumba doing?" said Bumblebee in a worried voice.

"Something to do with the Allspark fragments we've collected," said Ratchet.

"The Allspark fragments?" asked Bumblebee worriedly.

"Yeah, I get a bad vibe from it too," said Ratchet.

Optimus was also worried, especially as Matt had insisted on having half his crew, tank, Warthogs and all keeping an eye on it. "It's not that I don't trust him," he'd said to Optimus, "...I just don't trust his safety procedures..."

"But, wouldn't there be a slight risk to keep these military vehicles here?" asked Optimus, "Not that I'm worried something might go off, but if there were a leak, we could easily several new Transformers on our hands."

"NSC put nullifiers in all their vehicles after the war with the Decepticons. But that's also a reason why I have them a block away," said Matt innocently.

"I see," said Optimus, "But what does Jumba intend to do with this concentrated Allspark energy anyways? It could be very dangerous in the wrong hands. Well, I'm not referring to Jumba's of course."

"You should. He said something about fixing the Constructicons...maybe even Wreck-Gar too," said Matt.

"Yep, that's about the size of it." The two of them turned to see Chip, who was a wrench, a screwdriver, a welding torch, and what looked like an electric tuning fork in his hands. "I nearly finished with fixing up the Constructicons. In about an hour, we should be able to re-animate them and give Blurr and Wreck-Gar proper bodies and sparks."

Matt looked at Chip's tools. "You do remember what we agreed regarding experimental robot brain surgery?" he said accusingly.

"I'm not reprogramming them," said Chip, "I'm just making them neutral again. I admit I turned down their meanness drives a little, but only below Decepticon standard. It was a lot harder than you think, particularly with Dirt Boss. But then again, he didn't have very good bots to imprint off on."

Matt said, "Please explain that in mercenary speak. I have not a clue you're talking about."

"Well, when Cybertronians are first brought to life, they imprint basic personality features from the ones involved in their creation. With most protoforms, they're animated automatically, so they just get the basic programming of their factors," said Optimus.

"But with less controlled environments, such as the Transformers created on Earth, the imprints are a lot more varied," said Chip.

"Resulting in crazy people," said Matt.

"Sort of," said Chip, "Let's take Soundwave for instance. He was originally a toy built for Sari. Professor Sumdac may have built him, but Megatron designed and controlled him until he gained self-awareness. So Soundwave gained several of Megatron's personality traits: cruelty, ruthlessness, a craving for power, and a distaste for organics. But he also got a bit of Sumdac's genius."

"Hence how he did that reprogramming trick on the Autobots...what?So I bothered to read a file," said Matt, seeing everyone's expressions.

"Correct. Now with the Dinobots, they were mostly imprinting on the dinosaurs they were based off of, but I think they inherited Megatron's violence. Of course, something from Sari, Bumblebee, and Ratchet rubbed off on them, otherwise they wouldn't be Autobots," said Chip, "Wreck-Gar was completely created by accident and from junk."

"Hence why he's more or less Robo-Morph in mind," said Matt.

"Pretty much," agreed Chip, "Starscream's clones were directly based off of him, so it's small wonder they're based off his personality, albeit fractions of them. The Constructicons, at least the five of them besides Dirt Boss, are more or less robotic versions of their former operators. I've researched them."

"Good lord...you read a file," teased Matt.

"Which brings us to Dirt Boss," said Chip, "Dirt Boss' creation is a rather unique case. Of course, the forklift was Isaac's property, which would explain how he's a genius about structural design. But you have to remember that Dirt Boss was 'born' from a fusion of the forklift and a Headmaster unit. And that unit has a lot of history."

"Headmaster...I saw a file on that, can burn the head off combat mechs and hijack their functions...created by an absolute screwball...and that's from me," said Matt, calling up a file on the Headmaster.

"Indeed, which already isn't a healthy imprint. However, it turns out that Masterson only made one full-sized Headmaster unit," said Chip.

"So this is also the same unit that he used to hijack Bulkhead and Sentinel's bodies?" asked Optimus.

"That's not good. It probably had files in it so it could hijack faster...probably how it made miniaturized control chips," said Matt.

"Well, it's not just that," said Chip, "You see, the Headmaster unit imprinted off the Cybertronians it's been connected to. Which would mean Bulkhead, Sentinel Prime, Megatron, and Starscream. Bulkhead asides, not a good bunch to model yourself after."

"Definitely...oh crap..." said Matt, looking outside and limping outside, still not over his own injuries. Outside a warthog had turned up, towing a storage container.

"Yes, well, that's why Dirt Boss was such a hard bot to tune down," said Chip, "I'm afraid that I can only get him down to 'constantly-cranky' without interfering big time with his programming."

The two stopped when they heard angry splitter from outside and saw Matt yelling at a technician, the container now in clearer sight and covered in radiation warnings.

"I'm not so sure Dirt Boss is the biggest worry right now," said Optimus.

Matt had now gone inside to where Jumba had built his machine. "This is the final straw. Nuclear powered?" said Matt.

"Need secondary energy source," said Jumba, "Otherwise, Allspark radiation could fry machine."

Matt glared. "Read...my...fangs...NO!" said Matt.

Jumba snorted and muttered to himself, "Mercenary boy has no appreciation for integrate parts of science."

"No...mercenary boy remembers what happened the last time I let you play with hazardous materials," retorted Matt.

"Nothing died that time, except a couple of flies," said Jumba, "Besides, everyone needed haircut anyways." Matt glared and made strangling motions when Jumba turned away.

"Uh, I'm not completely familiar with Earth terminology, but something tells me that wasn't positive," said Optimus.

"Jumba's inventions have a habit of exploding," said Matt, rubbing his head.

"And these hazardous materials are harmful to organics?" asked Optimus.

"It could turn Detroit into a crater...a very deep crater that glows in the dark," said Matt.

"Ok, in that case, I won't have them using them here," said Optimus.

Matt sighed with relief. "You heard Optimus, Jumba. We'll take the risk. Lose the nuclear hazard," he called.

Jumba sighed and said, "Fine, but you tell 6-2-8 to keep music down. Evil genius can't work with loud funky music drowning evil genius thoughts."

"Draco listens to music?" muttered Matt.

"Him and new bot been dancing for last 30 Earth minutes," said Jumba, "It's getting on evil genius nerves."

Matt sighed. "Just test this overgrown microwave," he said.

"Fine, but don't say Jumba did not warn you," said Jumba, "Now, where is garbage-bot with speedster-bot's spark?"

"I have no idea...where did you leave him?" said Matt in an annoyed tone.

"Oh, he's out trying to find a suitable body to transfer his spark into," said Chip, "I think Lilo, Stitch, and Dune Runner went with him."

"Oh hell...I wonder how long it will take for someone to attack?" muttered Matt.

Meanwhile, Lilo, Stitch, and Dune Runner were driving down the street, with the garbage truck that's currently holding Blurr's spark following behind them. "How much longer will it take to get there? I admit that being able to take an extended and well-need vacation is what I needed, but this body is too slow and awkward. I can't return to Cybertron looking like this. It would be too humiliating."

"Relax, Blurr," said Lilo, "Captain Fanzone said he was gonna pull some strings so we can get you a race car just like the one you scanned."

"I hope so. As grateful as I am to be online, a truck is not my idea of a useful body," said Blurr.

Keeping his voice down, Dune Runner said to Lilo and Stitch, "You think we could have put a muffler on his speech synthesizer?"

The group however didn't notice a motortrike rider watching from the roof of a building. After all...would you expect a vehicle on a roof? "I knew I'd find you in this city," said Sideways to himself. Now just stay on that street a little longer..." The rider held up a remote control device and pressed the button on it. At the button's command, a police spike trap activated, sending up a row of spikes that popped Dune Runner's tires as he drove over them

"Ah! Ow!" cried Dune Runner as he went into a skid. Fortunately, he was able to slow himself down before he could crash and changed back into robot mode.

Sideways laughed to himself as the trap was sprung. "Too easy," he said.

"Dune Runner, what happened?" asked Lilo.

"Somebody popped me, like a green snake biting a sugarcane," said Dune Runner.

Blurr changed to robot mode bent down to look at the spike trap. "Hmm...it seems that this was not activated on location," he said before seeing everyone's expression. "By remote," he corrected.

"Then whoever set it off must be close," said Lilo.

The sound of an engine revving caught their attention. The next instant, a purple motortrike and its rider jumped off a nearby building, bounced off Blurr's head, and changed into robot mode. "Closer than you think, shrimp," said Sideways.

"Sideways...you big dummyhead," said Lilo harshly.

"Out of the way, kid," said Sideways, "I just took a wash this morning."

"Nala queesta!" said Stitch and jumped at Sideways.

Suddenly, the tip of one of Sideways' horns shot out on an extendable cord and hit Stitch, delivering a major electrical shock. Sideways smirked and said, "Down, boy," before a laser bolt blew the cord off. He turned to see Lilo. "Oh...you're not as you seem...little brat," he said.

"You keep away from my friends," said Lilo.

"I got a better idea," said Sideways, "How about you keep away from my targets?" Before Lilo could question what he meant, Sideways punted her away. "I hope she's got physical endurance to go with that spunky attitude," said Sideways mockingly. Sideways was a bit confused when he saw Blurr. "Hey...aren't you dead?" he said confused

"Technically yes and no," said Blurr, "The robot known as Mantichrome stole Wreck-Gar's Allspark fragment, but since my compressed and contorted body was on his possession, I was able to transfer my spark over to his body. Which is meant to be a completely temporary matter. In fact, we are on our way to pick up my new body when you so rudely and violently interrupted."

Sideways interrupted Blurr with a blast. "Ah, shut up," he said before looking at Dune Runner.

"Ya got a lot of nerve showing your face here, either of them," said Dune Runner.

Sideways laughed. "Ah...I have plenty of nerve...which will be more then you will have when I'm done. Do you know how much 200 tons of rock hurts?"

"Uh, not really," said Dune Runner.

Sideways fired a blast into Dune Runners chest, knocking him backwards and he yelled, "IT HURTS ALOT!"

"So you're gonna blast me to pieces for payback?" asked Dune Runner.

"Oh no," said Sideways, "I have a far more painful death in mind." He opened his chest compartment and pulled out a device that resembled a tube with claws on the end. "This Allspark extractor should work just nicely," said Sideways.

Meanwhile, Matt was getting worried. "WARDEN...what do you mean you can't find them? Patch em through," he said

"I'm trying, but something seems to be jamming the sensors over Detroit," said WARDEN.

"Try again...and get a squad over to their last location," said Matt.

"Will do, sir," said WARDEN.

Meanwhile, Dune Runner had not gone down without a fight as the block of Detroit they were in was any evidence of. Thanks to their respective healing powers, Dune Runner and Sideways can fight for a very long time, but even robots had stamina limits. Sideways however fought dirty and was using any trick and advantage he got to get one up on Dune Runner.

"You...you know I won't stop...fighting to protect my friends," said Dune Runner.

"And you know I won't stop until I take your Allspark fragment," said Sideways before shooting out the tip of his other horn on a cord. This time, a full on EM charge shot down the cord into Dune Runner, forcing the self-proclaimed guardian to his knees. "Are we comfortable?" taunted Sideways.

"Ya know...you'll never...win..." panted Dune Runner.

"Oh? It seems to me I just did," said Sideways as he approached Dune Runner, "Don't worry, your fragment will be put to good use." With that, he put the Allspark extractor to Dune Runner's chest and turned it on.

Lilo and Stitch came round in time to see this and could only watch in horror. With a final flash, the Allspark extractor snapped shut, Dune Runner's Allspark fragment inside it. Dune Runner fell backwards as he lost power. "I'll...have...my...o'hana..." said Dune Runner before his body grayed out.

"Ah...nothing like victory," said Sideways before seeing Lilo and Stitch were awake. "Now for a little pest control," he said, taking aim before a tank shell blew straight through him. Sideways cried out with surprise and pain before turning around. About half a dozen tanks were occupying the street behind him, all cannons pointed at him.

Techo was sitting on the lead tanks machine gun turret. "Have a nice day, asshole," he taunted before waving for the tanks to fire.

However, as the tanks fired at Sideways, his body seemed to change to resemble TV static. The blasts kept coming through him, but he healed up everytime.

Techo swore and said "I hate this guy."

"Trans-Phase Generators, you've gotta love 'em," said Sideways, "You primitive bonesacks don't get it. There's nothing you can do that can hurt me."

Techo however had pulled out a bazooka-like device. "Nah...we came prepared this time. Phase cannon...say cheese," he said and fired.

Sideways dispersed around the weapon blast before reforming into his vehicle mode. "I'd love to stay and taunt, but I've got other things to do today," said Sideways before he drove off.

Techo swore as Sideways drove off before he and some of the bladestorm marines jumped out and ran over to Lilo and Stitch. "Guys, what happened?" asked Techo.

"Sideways ambushed us," said Lilo, "He popped Dune Runner's tires before knocking us out. And he just stole Dune Runner's fragment."

Techo glared in the direction that Sideways had gone before turning his comm.. on. "Boss...it's Techo...we got a problem."

The atmosphere was very grim as the small convoy of military vehicles rolled back to the Autobot headquarters, with Dune Runner's lifeless body lying on top of Blurr's vehicle mode.

Matt was outside in a black mood as they arrived. "That...ass..." he said, stopping as he saw Lilo, "Erm...you didn't hear that."

"What can we do?" asked Lilo.

"I'm afraid he's beyond help," said Ratchet, "A shell can be repaired, but not if the spark is gone."

"Jumba's machine could fix it," said Matt.

"Probably," said Ratchet, "If that overgrown magnifying glass can do anything."

Shortly after that, everyone was gathered in the assembly line room. The six Constructicons were lined up along a wall, each clamped in place. Jumba's machine was against another wall and was currently hooked up to Blurr, while a line connecting Blurr to a race car that had modified and customized for Blurr's new body.

Matt looked at the machine. "Ratchet was right...it is a magnifying glass," he said. It did kind of looked that way, with the Allspark fragments in a container up top with a huge lense below that funneled into the main body of the machine.

"Jumba...not that I am questioning you...but I do know that your machines tend to..." said Matt.

Stitch grinned and said "Kaboom."

"Do not question evil genius," said Jumba, "Unless you want to plug shards directly into construction bots and make them vulnerable to Allspark extractor again."

Ratchet looked over at that. "Did you say 'Evil genius'?"

"Eh, it's mostly just a title," said Lilo, "He's really very friendly and sociable."

"It's gonna explode, isn't it?" said Matt to Stitch who had gotten his hands on a spare helmet and was wearing it.

"Ih," he said.

"Would be lesser chance if mercenary boy had allowed me to use the nuclear generator, but I think we have a pretty high chance of success. An 83.724% chance to be exact."

Matt and Stitch looked at each other. "You got a spare helmet?" muttered Matt.

Jumba then pulled a large switch on the machine. An electrical current was run through the Allspark fragment container, activating their unique radiation. Said radiation was beamed down through the lense into the machine. Shortly after that, the radiation was funneled into the tube that connected to the garbage truck. Matt watched as the garbage truck crackled with energy before there was a flash of light. Then a flash of light zoomed down the tube connecting the truck to the race car, which then glowed before flashing as well.

Jumba turned to see Stitch and Matt were ducking and muttered something about idiots in tantalog.

"Did...it work?" asked Chloe nervously. The answer came a few moments later when with a clicking of gears, the garbage truck and the race car transformed into Wreck-Gar and Blurr respectively. "I am Wreck-Gar, and I think it's my birthday!" said Wreck-Gar in his usual cheery manner.

"It worked," said Matt, he and Stitch getting up with the serious look people wear when they know they've just been idiots.

Blurr was quite enthusiastic too, "It is such a relief to be back to my normal speedy self. Although, it is a slight throwback seeing how this body is made from Earth-made materials which is far less endurant than Cybertronian materials. Of course, considering how slowly progressive a species that humans are, it'll have to do. But I am going to get back to Cybertron to get a well-needed tune up."

"Ok...who's next?" said Matt, looking at the remaining bots.

"I think it's the Constructicons' turn now," said Bulkhead.

"What about Dune Runner?" asked Lilo, "He needs a new spark too."

"I think Dune Runner can wait a few more cycles," said Bulkhead, "These guys have been offline for months."

Matt glared before sighing. "The machine can handle one extra guy. It doesn't matter about the order," he said

The Constructicons were powered up, one by one. It became apparent that Chip had done decent enough work as each was missing their Decepticon insignia and were back to neutral yellow, even Hightower and Rollout. However the biggest test was about to start...Dirt Boss. To this end, Matt had a heavy squad aiming plasma launchers at him. "Ok...turn it on," said Matt.

Jumba gave the Allspark channeler an uneasy look. The strain of the revivals was starting to take its toll. A couple of cracks had developed with energy sparking from them. "You certain about that?" asked Jumba.

"Sooner this guy's awake and either locked up or friendly, the better," said Matt.

Jumba shrugged and said, "If you say so." He pulled the switch, sending a concentration of Allspark energy to Dirt Boss. The device made a groaning noise but appeared to be holding together.

"Uh, I'm starting to get a funny feeling," said Bumblebee. Suddenly, the machine started to shake all over, its humming winding up to screeching levels. The energy outflow to Dirt Boss seemed to intensify, but it didn't let off any pressure.

"Shut it down," said Matt, looking at Stitch who was trying to squeeze into a helmet like a hermit crab into a shell.

"I'm...trying..." grunted Jumba as he tried to pull up the switch. Suddenly, the machine shook and the switch was thrown off by a small explosion. "Uh oh," said Jumba.

"I knew it," said Matt as Dirt Boss started to glow too bright.

"It's gonna blow!" yelled Optimus, "Everyone get back!"

"RUN AWAY!" yelled Matt as he and his squad ran for it

Everyone, organic, robotic, or a mixture of the two, quickly ran to the opposite side of the room. Just in time too as the Allspark channeler banged a couple more times before exploding.

Matt had almost made it out when it had exploded. He was standing in the middle of a silhouette of Allspark shards in the wall around him and making funny whimpering noises. The explosion blew out a large part of the wall and ceiling and smoke was filling up the room. Matt settled for more whimpering as the smoke cleared.

"Did it work?" asked Prowl.

Suddenly, there was the sound of coughing coming from the smoke. "What the slag's with all the smog? What is this? Joysey?" Dirt Boss stepped out of the cloud. He looked remarkably different with yellow armor and gray instead of green and purple, yellow optics instead of red, and no insignia on his chest.

The marines all aimed at him, adding several laser sights to Dirt Boss' armor. Matt especially remembered his run in with the old Dirt Boss to well to give too much benefit of the doubt.

Dirt Boss looked around and said, "Look at this slaggin' mess. Is this supposed to be a house or a war memorial? Hey! You slackers get over here! We've got some fixin' to do!"

Matt stopped at that. "Okay...I guess it worked. Jumba, let's fix this so we can process Dune Runner."

"Not possible," said Jumba, "I warned you channeler would overload without secondary power source, but you wouldn't listen."

Matt glared at Jumba. "You're taking the blame...just cause I confiscated your uranium."

"Besides, there's hardly enough Allspark to channel," said Jumba, "Explosion dispersed fragments into particles."

Matt pointed to the Matt silhouette in the remaining wall made up of Allspark shards. "WHAT'S THAT THEN?" he gibbered.

Jumba pulled out one, revealing it to be more of a flake then anything. "Like I said, barely anything," said Jumba.

Matt looked over at Dune Runner sadly before back at Jumba. "Do something," he said harshly.

Jumba sighed and said, "It will take a few days to rebuild Allspark channeler. And it would take even longer to find enough Allspark fragments to use. I'm afraid X-buggy bot is going to be inactive for long while."

"What about if I went and tore bits off Sideways till he handed over Dune's shard?" growled Matt.

"If you can find him," said Jumba, "But you know that if we put shard back in, Sideways will just steal it again."

"When I am done with him, he won't be stealing anything," snarled Matt.

However, Dirt Boss broke up this discussion when he walked over to the two of them and said, "Hey, which one of yous two is the contractor?"

Matt and Jumba looked at each other and both said "He is...no, you are...!"

"I don't care!" snapped Dirt Boss, "This is a big mess that needs fixin' and I wanna know who's payin' for it."

Matt thought about this before shrugging. "One Porter C. Powell is paying for this...and don't take no for an answer," he said.

"Alright then," said Dirt Boss before turning to his subordinates, "You mooks stop clownin' around, we got work to do! Hightower, started putting supports up. Mixmaster, I wanted that cement mixture ready 2 cycles ago! Get your lazy gears clickin'!"

Matt said, "Man, and I thought Neilsson was cranky..."

"Hey, I told you there was a limit to what I can do without brainwashing," said Chip, "Just be glad he isn't thinking about defense rackets or anything."

"Give him time," said Matt before walking off to give Lilo the bad news about Dune Runner.

The gang's mood was pretty gloomy that night as they considered what to do.

"They could be anywhere, probably in places that aren't that easily accessible," said Techo, "Besides, our scanners have trouble locking onto the signals of inactive fragments."

"We can't just leave him like that...he's Ohana," said Lilo.

"I know, but we don't have too many ways to bring him back, thanks to that smegging thief Sideways," grumbled Matt.

Chip looked thoughtful and said, "Where did Sideways get that extractor anyways?"

Matt sighed, "How the hell should I know? Maybe Mantichrome made it when he attacked the Constructico...bots."

"Mantichrome had it when he attacked Wreck-Gar too," said Chloe, "In fact, he's the only one we've ever seen with an Allspark extractor until today."

"I knew that little can was behind this," said Matt angrily.

Chris however said, "Do we know where he is?"

"Mantichrome is very good at hiding," said Chip, "He may not be even be on Earth, per se. He could be hiding in the Internet."

"You're better than him...flush the little calculator out," said Matt

"Well, I could send out an echolocation virus," said Chip, "That could find him."

"What's that?" asked Lilo.

"It's a type of computer virus that's programmed to find a certain user then come back. It doesn't stay very long in one spot so firewalls can't easily delete it," said Chip.

"Go for it...we'll have a surprise waiting for him in the park," said Matt.

"Ok, it could take a while," said Chip.

As he started working on a computer, Blackarachnia walked in. "So what's the big discussion?" asked the black widow.

"We're gonna catch Mantichrome and go to work on him with a tin opener till he gives us the means to get Dune a new spark," said Matt cheerfully.

"So that's what happened to him," said Blackarachnia, "Bit sad. Didn't really knew him personally but he did have that sunny disposition."

"Wanna help us turn Mantichrome into tin cans?" asked Matt.

"Well, it would certainly be a relief from the bots around here," said Blackarachnia in a decidedly-annoyed voice.

"What do you mean?" asked Techo.

Ratchet burst in on them at that. "Those damn Constructicons...no manners...burst in on my quarters saying they needed to take measurements."

"I take it that they're not giving you two any good impressions," said Matt in as diplomatic a voice as he could muster.

"Oh come on, they can't be that bad," said Chris.

Just then, Mixmaster and Scrapper walked in ."How's a bot supposed to work without any oil around here?" complained Mixmaster.

"Not that ol' Dirt Boss will allow us to drink any," said Scrapper, "What a spark-squeezer."

They stopped when they saw Blackarachnia. Matt must have had some kind of sixth sense as he started edging towards the exit as the two Constructicons both made a wolf whistle.

"Whoa, ain't that a killer number?" said Mixmaster.

"Hey, spider mama, show a little leg!" hooted Scrapper.

"This will end badly," said Matt, slowly edging behind cover.

Blackarachnia glared at the two construction bots and muttered, "Immature overgrown..." Then she got a sneaky look on her face before saying in a seductive voice, "Why don't you come a little closer for a better look?"

Chloe stared in shock before muttering, "Hussy." She then suddenly noticed something and smirked.

"Now that's more like it!" said Mixmaster as he and Scrapper walked towards Blackarachnia.

"You boys look tired," said Blackarachnia, "How about something sweet?"

"Oh, you know it, baby," said Scrapper as he and Mix leaned down towards her. However, instead of a kiss, they both got stabbed by her stingers before getting their heads knocked together. The two Constructicons slumped down, Scrapper said dizzily, "Wow...that was something."

"Nicely done," said Chloe, "But did you really have to act like that?"

"Oh, like you've never flaunted yourself to males to try a trick like that," said Blackarachnia.

Chloe glared, "No comment," before walking off from the smirking Blackarachnia.

Matt had been suitably amused by Blackarachnia's stunt, but he gave a suspicious look to Chloe as she was walking out of the room. Her answer was...too ambiguous for his liking.

Pleakley walked in as Chloe left and saw the groaning forms of Mixmaster and Scrapper. "What happened?" he said,

"Oh, it's a funny story," said Matt, "Sit down and I'll tell you."

But what none of them knew was that someone else was planning his own mischief. Hightower had sneaked around the back and was outside the window of the room they were in. "Time to go swag-fishin'," he said to himself as he extended his cherrypicker lift and lowered a hook and line from it into the window. Nobody noticed the few pieces of gear that he hooked and silently pulled back upwards.

Matt had just finished up retelling and was laughing his head off. "It was so classic!" he said between laughs, "She caught them totally by surprise."

Ratchet said in a grumbling voice, "I could do with them being a bit more agreeable."

Matt said, "Oh, they can't be that...bad…" slowing down his voice as he saw a can of oil seemingly moving along the floor by itself.

"Well, we could always try out my EARWAX session," said Pleakley.

"Earwax?" asked Blackarachnia, sounding disgusted.

"It's a long story. Basically a self help group, like a talk show...only more violent," said Matt.

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Lilo, "It worked on the experiments."

"Yeah, but those guys were smaller lab-made experiments," said Matt, "I doubt that it'd work so well on giant robots." He paused when he felt something on the back of his pants. Matt suddenly found himself slowly being dragged back. "Do it...but whoever's on the end of this line will be late. Ratchet will be fixing him," he said darkly, igniting a plasma orb.

Hightower struggled a bit with his latest catch. "This one's putting up a fight," he said to himself, "I hope it's a keeper."

He stopped as Matt appeared in his view and judging from the glowing eyes and the large orb of plasma hovering in his palm, he was a bit annoyed. "Make the explanation phenomenally good."

"Uh, I thought there were giant land fish in there?" said Hightower.

Ratchet and Pleakley listened as there was a blasting noise that cut Hightower off and Matt walked back in via the fire door, looking calmer. "Pleakley...Your EARWAX has the go ahead."

"Ok, since it works better in big groups, how about we have all the problematic bots attend?" said Pleakley, "We can have the Dinobots, the other Constructicons, Waspinator, maybe Miss Arachnia would like to attend?"

Matt stopped at that. "Erm...that...you sure?" he said as his imagination supplied all the things that could go horribly wrong.

"Don't worry, if I can get Spike, Splodyhead, and Slushy under control, I can handle these guys," said Pleakley.

"Wait a second, who said I was going?" said Blackarachnia, "I don't have to attend your stupid session."

Chloe's voice echoed from outside, "Matt, if you don't get her to go, just remember these words: 'I know where you sleep'."

Matt gulped a bit before saying, "You need some attitude modification anyways. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get a new belt."

Matt walked out to see Chloe. "There was no need to go all Silvia on me," he said accusingly.

Chloe looked a bit confused. "What? What are you talking about?"

"Uh, didn't you just threaten me?" asked Matt.

"No, why would I do that?" asked Chloe.

Just then, NegaMorph walked outside of a nearby room, whistling to himself. He noticed Matt and Chloe staring at him and said, "What are you looking at?"

"Did you impersonate my voice?" said Chloe accusingly.

"Um, no?" said NegaMorph. A loud buzzing was heard. The three of them looked down to see Fibber walking by.

"Oh, Fibber, you're here," said Pleakley, "Here's the seminar I planned..."

Pleakley jumped as NegaMorph was blasted through a wall. "Are you sure you don't want to attend too?" he said weakly to the Lynches.

"Nah, we gotta go find Mantichrome and stomp on him before we use his fragments to bring Dune Runner back to life," said Matt.

"Oh no, you don't," cried NegaMorph as he got back up, "Or at least not her, she's staying."

Chloe turned to glare at NegaMorph. "And why would I do that?" she said icily.

"For one thing, Blackarachnia needs to be watched and you're the one who has most influence on her," said NegaMorph, "And more importantly, you're still not recovered from Nightbird's attack. You put any exertion on that mission and your stitches will pop."

Matt sighed. "He has a point. you were nearly gutted like a fish by that nutball. I can handle the walking tin can," he said.

"But if we're right about who Sideways is working for, there'll be more of them," said Chloe, "Besides, you didn't get away scot-free from your transwarp trip."

"I know what I'm doing. I've survived worse," said Matt stubbornly.

"He's certainly not going solo either." The siblings turned to look at the newest Autobot to join the team. Jazz had decided that Sentinel 'Magnus' and his way of running Cybertron was cramping his style too much and had followed Ratchet and Fanzone when they returned to Earth with the Magnus Hammer. Officially, his mission was to retrieve the Hammer, but he decided to stay with Optimus' team.

"Any help's welcome," said Matt.

"Solid," said Jazz, "I can round a couple of the other bots, but not a whole crowd. We could slide into Mantichrome's joint and out before he can bust a move."

Matt shrugged "Erm...ok?" he said in a unsure voice.

"We appreciate your help," said Chloe.

"Anything for my cool bro, Dune Runner," said Jazz, "He's like the twin I never had, you know?"

"Sure...be sure to break everything except the extractor when we get there...including Mantichrome," said Matt.

"I guess I'll stay here and make sure Pleakley's session doesn't get out of control," said Chloe in a reluctant tone.

"If you're lucky, they'll start a fight," teased Matt.

Chloe grimaced and said, "I'm not going to try to get between Grimlock and Waspinator."

"At least record it. Ok, I'm going," said Matt, jumping back as Chloe's eyes glowed threateningly.

"Uh, maybe we should wait till morning," said Jazz.

An explosion was heard from Jumba's makeshift lab. "On second thoughts..." he said in a tired voice.

"Ok, is that everything?" asked Matt as he clipped in the last spare cartridge.

"Just about." The three mercs turned to see Sari wearing hockey gear, complete with a hockey stick.

Matt immediately realized what Sari intended. "Not a chance...no, no, no," he said, waving his arms.

"C'mon, you guys need me, no one handles Allspark energy better than I can," said Sari.

"And nobody is better than messing with robots or cyborgs then Mantichrome," retorted Matt.

"But I've got mad hacking skills," said Sari, "No one figures out machines better than I can."

"Yeah, we've already got a lockpick, thank you very much," said Matt, "Besides, Chip's the one who's giving us directions on how to get there."

Chris said, "Talking of which...where is old tin can features?"

"According to the feedback I got from the echolocation virus," said Chip, "He somehow has his base at the bottom of Lake Erie."

"Oh boy...probably a cloaked ship," said Matt.

Techo, however, said, "I could...borrow one of those subs the police use. Their security's a joke."

"And have the Sharkticons chew us up before we get halfway down?" asked Chip.

"Or we use the space bridge for a fine-tuned jump...adding a guidance chip from the Bladestorm's jump engine'll do it," said Chip

"I'm pretty sure they'll notice a transwarp in their own base," said Sari.

"I already have a few fun bugs that'll fake all clear signals throughout the base," said Techo, smugly.

"Or we could use the back door," said Sari.

"What are you talking about?" asked Matt.

"If it's at the bottom of Lake Erie, I'm betting it's the old naval base. They used to have a floating base out there until a torpedo accident sunk it."

"The storage tunnel'll be still intact..." said Techo, calling up the base details.

"Yep, but I know the coordinates for it," said Sari.

"How would you know?" demanded Matt.

"Because I had to turn in a report about it to Tutor Bot," said Sari, "But I'll only tell them if I can come along."

Matt sighed. "Fine..." he said in a defeated voice.

"But lose the hockey gear, it won't be much use where we're going," said Chris.

"Hey, this stuff's better at fighting giant robots than you think," said Sari.

"Yeah right," said Techo.

Just then, Mixmaster and Scrapper walked by. "Dames these days, they're so edgy," said Mix.

"Yer tellin' me," said Scrap, "Ya ask for a can of oil and they to bite yer head off."

They stopped as they saw Sari and a suppressed memory surfaced. It musta been bad as they both screamed and ran into each other before scrambling up and running for it.

The others stared at Sari. "Do I wanna know?" asked Matt.

Sari grinned, "I'll tell you another time."

Meanwhile, at Mantichrome's secret base, Whipsting was nearly offline with boredom as he watched the security monitors.

It had been child's play to bring the human security back online though the fact that the base was derelict meant nobody came to visit. As a result, he didn't notice the camera views all jump suddenly.

"Ugh, this is so dull," groaned Whipsting, "Why do I have to watch these dumb screens? I ought to be blasting something up."

Whipsting was about to give up and go find something to do when he noticed a red light flashing on the security console. It was the light to show that the surface access tunnel was opening.

"That's weird, I don't think anyone was using that tunnel today," said Whipsting.

He got up and decided it would be a good idea to take a look himself.

Meanwhile the gang finished moving into the tunnel. "Nice one, Techo. Nobody's home," Matt said.

The Autobots had drove in vehicle mode, so the gang had rode along inside them. Dune Runner's body was laid out across the back of Optimus' fire engine mode. "Ok, we need to be extra cautious," said Optimus, "If this is Mantichrome's base, the wrong move could bring his entire force down on us."

"All four of them," said Matt, checking the charge on the ion rifle Techo had made. The nasty rifle would temporarily short out all spark energy: a certain knock out even on a glancing blow.

"That is not a complete certainty," said Blurr, "Although we have confirmed the fact that Mantichrome would have his four Monstercon serveats with him does not mean that he hasn't acquired more. Sideways' possession of an Allspark extractor and the fact that he was working with the Decepticon Soundwave indicates that there may be a sizeable force in this base."

Matt went over to a door and began working on the controls to open it. "Oh please...it's not like one's right behind this door," he said, opening the door to be face to face with Whipsting who seemed as speechless at seeing Matt. "Oh...ok," said Matt before giving the ion rifle its test run.

"What the-" started the Wadjet before he was knocked out.

"How long will that keep him down?" asked Sari as she got out of Bumblebee.

Techo said, "It causes a full reboot...With an A.I like his...easily 48 hours."

Matt smirked before looking in a tool cabinet and pulling out a can of spray paint left behind by a tech. "I'd best hurry then."

While Matt was 'busy', the others got out of the Autobots and transformed. "Like this place, I do not," said Weirdwolf shuddering. The dragon/wolf had been brought for his tracking skills. Not to mention Matt had been teaching him a few tricks about 'marking territories'.

The group headed into the base. "Now, if I was an Allspark extractor, where would I hide?" said Chris, looking around.

"If I was a big bad bot, I'd want those Allspark fragments where I can keep an optic on them," said Jazz.

"Meaning the room where his recharge port is...and a guy with as big an ego as Manti, his recharge port'll be connected straight into the bases main power unit," said Techo.

"Then we better get moving, those fragments won't come to us," said Matt.

"I wonder if this'll be any harder than Pleakley's seminar," said Chip.

Back at the plant, everyone was gathered in the living room. It was a bit crowded what with the Dinobots in their beast modes and several Constructicons. "Ok, we're all here so let's begin," said Pleakley, "Using my extensive Earth expertise, I've adapted Dr. Ocrah's theories into my own seminar entitle Evil Attitude Remodification and Wayward Anger Extraction. Or as I like to call it, EARWAX."

The bots all stared blankly at him. In the case of the Constructicons, this was because they thought Pleakley was crazy and in the case of the Dinobots, it was because they were waiting for the next thought.

"We'll start with Level 1: Sharing. Fibber here will buzz if you don't tell the truth, so please speak openly and honestly." Pleakley looked around and asked, "Does anyone have something they'd like to share with the group? Anybody?"

"Grimlock wonder what little stick talking about," said Grimlock in a confused tone.

"Uh, ok, for those of you who haven't read the program, this is for helping you blend in better with modern society," said Pleakley.

"Me Grimlock not need to blend in with puny humans. Me Grimlock smash puny humans," said Grimlock, making the other two Dinobots roar in agreement.

"No, no, no, we want to be friends with humans," said Pleakley.

Grimlock not need friends..." began Grimlock before Fibber interrupted with a buzz.

"Sheesh, this is what we signed up for?" said Scrapper.

"I'd rather be stringing telephone wires through my processor," said Hightower. However, Fibber buzzed again.

Pleakley said, "Now then...we should really be honest." However he was careful not to sound angry, these were 30 feet tall robots after all.

"I'll share something about myself," said Blackarachnia, "I'm bored! I'm too smart for this primitive slag." Fibber disagreed with another beep, causing the spider bot to glare at him.

"If Spiderbot so smart, how comes she blew us to other side of planet?" asked Waspinator.

"Oh, mute it, Wasp, it's your fault we ended up there," said Blackarachnia. Fibber beeped again.

Pleakley said, "Now then...let's stay calm," he said. This session reminded him of how his first one had gone...if he was right then violence was imminent.

"Stay calm? I'm barely staying awake!" snapped Dirt Boss, "This is the biggest load of junk I've encountered."

Wreck Gar said, "No...this is the biggest load of junk," making a huge pile of garbage appear. Rollout gagged at the assault on his olfactory sensors and backed away. He ended up backing into a wall and going through it.

"Ok, maybe we should move this to a more open space," said Pleakley.

Meanwhile, back with the infiltration team, the gang had to be very careful so not to accidentally run into more of the Monstercons.

"I wonder how long these guys have been using this base?" asked Sari.

Weirdwolf sniffed the air and said, "Three months at the latest, they have stayed."

"Oh great...plenty of time for the nutter to make himself at home," said Matt, checking a half-faded direction sign that stated the direction to main power.

"Ok, we're going to have to be extra quiet," said Chip. Suddenly, there was the sound of someone breaking wind very loudly. "Very suave, Matt," said Chip sarcastically.

"I didn't do it," said Matt. Matt held up a hand for quiet as the noises sounded again, from the room ahead. "Company," said Matt.

Matt and Chris peeked around the doorway. In the next room were the two speaker Transformers, Rumble and Frenzy. The two of them were laughing their heads off. "Wait, wait, I got another one," said Frenzy. His speakers then made the sound of a woopie cushion. The two of them started laughing again.

"Ooh, my turn," said Rumble, before making the sound of a pig squealing. The two of them started laughing even harder.

"These guys are in the way. Optimus, Matt here, how's your way going?" he said, the two having split up to allow the group to use as many tunnels as possible.

"Clear so far," said Optimus, "However, there are a couple of heat-detectors over here. You might trigger them if you come that way. Jazz is trying to turn them off."

"Well...we got the robotic equivalent of Beevis and Butthead blocking the way to the reactor," said Matt.

"Of who?" asked Optimus.

"Frenzy and Rumble...Soundwave's lackies...bunch of stupid, idiotic noodly...and they're behind me, aren't they?" said Matt as he saw his team's faces all fall as he insulted the two.

Matt turned to see the speaker twins with mischievous looks on their faces. "What have we got here, Rumble?" said Frenzy.

"Looks like a bunch of organics," said Rumble.

"Did you invite them here?" asked Frenzy.

"No, did you invite them, Frenzy?" said Rumble.

"Well if neither of us invited them, they must be intruders," said Frenzy.

"They haven't even run the doorbell," said Rumble.

"Then let's ring it for them," said Frenzy.

"Oh, let's," agreed Rumble. Then the two of them blasted Matt and the others back with the cacophonous sound of bells ringing.

"Ow..." said Matt weakly from where he had landed before seeing that Sari wasn't around.

The two Transformers were laughing their heads off at their reaction. "That was not funny," snapped Chip.

The two of them stopped at that. "Not funny he says?" asked Frenzy.

"Perhaps we should do a different sound," said Rumble.

"Yeah, how about a bunch of alarms blaring?" suggested Frenzy.

"Loud enough for everyone in the base to hear," said Rumble.

"I prefer the sound of silence," said Matt, blasting Frenzy with the ion rifle before it was kicked out his hand by Rumble.

"Now that wasn't nice," said Rumble.

"Oh, let's let them have it," said Frenzy.

Matt glared at Techo. "You didn't click the recharge button," Techo said.

The two twins seemed to be warming up to let out a big crescendo when Sari sneaked behind them and kicked Frenzy into a wall and smacking Rumble into the floor with her hammer.

Rumble was a bit surprised at that and got up into a fighting pose. "Hey...don't ruin my beat," he said before an ion blast knocked him out. "Now it works...useless junk." said Matt.

Frenzy slowly peeled himself from the wall. He barely seemed to be online. "Here, take a load off your feet," said Chip before zapping him with his viral energy and putting him into forced stasis lock.

"Nice one, Sari," said Matt, impressed.

"I had a bit of practice, once I convinced Ratchet to let me use my weapons," said Sari.

Matt nodded. "Nice..." he said before walking past them and peering into the reactor room. It looked like Mantichrome had indeed set up his quarters close to the reactor, including laboratory gear. Matt activated his comlink and said, "Optimus, we found the main reactor. Think you can come over here?"

"We've deactivated the heat detectors and are heading for you now. Have you found the Allspark extractor or any of the stolen shards?" said Optimus.

Techo had opened a box and said, "Oh smeg. Tell Optimus that we found the fragments, but I don't think they're usable."

"What? What's wrong with them?" asked Sari.

Techo said, "Take a peek," moving aside to let the others see.

The others looked to see Mantichrome's collection of Allspark fragments. He apparently has been very busy as there was almost half of the Allspark within a force field and rigged up to a machine. The shards had been put together in a nearly complete pieces, with some pieces jutting out or missing.

Chip examined the machine they rigged too. "Very busy indeed," said Chip, "This looks like a personality reprogrammer, reconfigured to emit the subversive transmission in the form of energy waves capable of permeating through and affecting different forms of radiation."

"English please," said Matt.

"It's basically designed to force one's personality onto another, only Mantichrome fixed it so that it can affecting materials, particularly ones that give off unusual radiation," said Chip.

"He's playing with the Allspark," said Techo, looking at the machinery.

"And if I know him, he'll want to corrupt the Allspark with his own personality," said Chip.

"Great," said Matt sarcastically before looking at the sealed recharge unit, which basically resembled a capsule before peppering it with plasma rounds.

Chris opened up his comlink and said, "Prime, big trouble. Mantichrome's planning on brainwashing the Allspark. We need you guys over here now!" There was only silence on the other end. "Didn't you hear me?" asked Chris.

A monotonic voice responded, "Your call has been redirected to a superior robot. All attempts to communicate with Autobots shall be terminated."

Matt grabbed the comm. "Mantichrome, you psychotic nutball. Why don't you come over and take me on proper?"

"Mantichrome is unavailable at the moment," said the monotonic voice, "Your call has been redirected to Soundwave. Mantichrome shall be with you in a few cycles. Would you like to leave a message before your termination?"

"Oh...have you checked your friends? They're a bit silent at the moment," taunted Matt.

"Foolish organic. Your rendering them unconscious activated their wireless alarms. I was aware of your presence long before you entered Mantichrome's chamber," said Soundwave.

"So...tell me. How long have you been a coward with all the backbone of a jellyfish?" said Matt, waving to Chip to get a viral blast ready to send.

"Logic is superior to simple bravery. I am capable of dealing with you from a distance. For instance, merely communicating with me now leaves you vulnerable." Then Matt's comm. started letting off a high-pitched sonic shrill.

"Oh...crap...not this...again..." said Matt before passing out as the sonic stunner went to work

"Ok, that's not good," said Sari.

Weirdwolf took the initiative by spitting onto the communicator, reducing it into a molten, but silent, puddle. Matt groaned from ground level, "I hate that guy in ways I cannot describe."

"I hope the Autobots can get here before Mantichrome's other lackies can," said Chip.

Just then, a door opened and Deathgrip walked through in Crawdad mode. "Too late for that, maggots," said Deathgrip before firing.

Matt hit the floor before the blast shot over them and hit the reactor. "Gee, nice shooting," taunted Chris, firing a few blasts at the Monstercon.

Deathgrip narrowly avoided the blasts Matt sent and said, "You're fools to come in here."

"Big deal," said Techo, "We beat you guys all the time."

"Maybe, but this time, it's our turf." At Deathgrip's words, Leafstripper flew down from the ceiling, pelting the group with lasser and pellet fire. Another door opened as Roughshell stomped in.

"You guys lose," teased Leafstripper.

"Now we'll crush you," said Roughshell.

"Time to say goodbye, human," said Deathgrip, who was in robot mode and had his blasters up to highest intensity.

"You're right, goodbye," said Techo before pressing a button.

The three Monstercons laughed before there was a high pitched whine and they literally froze in place, like they were in a photograph. "What do you know? They did leave," taunted Techo, tapping Roughshell.

"Yeah, but that's just three bots," reminded Chip, "Mantichrome's got others in this base, and they're bigger and badder than these guys."

Techo said, "Then let's make a bigger bang. I wonder how annoyed Mantichrome would be if I broke all the reactor containment fields?"

"Oh, I would be very annoyed." The group turned to see Mantichrome standing in a door way, with Soundwave and Sideways behind him. "It looks like I'm going to have to spray for pests," said Mantichrome before smalls ports in his neck started spraying out poisonous gas.

Techo said, ""Sorry...wrong number," and hit the containment alarm, causing the door to shut in Mantichrome's face, a small dent showing that Mantichrome had been a bit too close.

"Hurry, get that reactor-" started Chip when a rather different alarm started ringing. Then five ports in the floor opened up and shark-like robots on crab legs started climbing out, chomping their razor teeth with hunger.

"Oh, come on!" yelled Techo before picking up a hunk of spare piping and punting one of the bots.

Another one scuttled at Sari, making a 'bagabagabaga' noise. "So these are his Sharkticons?" asked Sari as she threw an energy ball at one.

The blasted Sharkticon flew through the air with a 'wheeehehehe' noise before it landed on the semi-conscious Matt and decided to chow down if the sound of "What the...ARGH!" was anything to go by.

"Ok, that's new," said Chip.

"And so is this," said another voice as blue tentacles suddenly came down from the ceiling and wrapped themselves around Sari. They looked up to see a green and blue robot shaped like a jellyfish with a snake-like mask covering most of its bulbous head. "Well...you're new," said Schyzophrona to the struggling Sari, "I didn't think the Cybertronians liked organic disguises..."

"Oh, I'm plenty unique," said Sari before trying to slice at Schyzophrona.

"Hmm, how about we put that talent for more pragmatic purposes?" said Schyzophrona before tinier tentacles extended from the tips of the ones holding Sari and started to cover various parts of her body.

"Oi...robo-calamari," said an annoyed voice. Schyzo turned to see Matt holding a struggling Sharkticon. "Is this yours?" he yelled, throwing the Sharkticon who chomped down on one of Schyzo's tentacles on its flight to the wall.

"Argh, you will pay for that," cried Schyzo. However, instead of Scyhzo attacking Matt, Sari held up her hand and blasted at Matt.

Matt barely dodged the attack. "Hey, watch it!" he shouted.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do it," said Sari.

"Of course not," said Schyzo, "Her body is completely under my control now as well as her unique offensive systems."

Matt glared. "Oh...you're more like a squid then a thought," he said.

"Oh? And how's that?" asked Schyzo

"No backbone," said Matt, before rolling to avoid another blast. This one however hit the reactor, making a control board start to light up with warning lights.

Schyzo glared before his mask plugged into a purple piece that rotated to his front. "I have my own offensive systems too," he said in a different, more annoying voice. The two arms at his sides pointed at Matt before explosive arrowheads started shooting out. Sari unwillingly threw her own blasts at Matt as well.

An automated computer voice said, "Reactor in jeopardy, activating systems repairs." The Allspark fragments inside it started to glow and the damage that was dealt to the reactor healed itself.

"Cool," said Techo before looking at Schyzo and Sari.

Techo could see the tentacles and said, "Hey, Weirdwolf..."

Meanwhile, Matt was not having an easy time. Schyzo's missiles had big explosions that were hard to avoid and Sari's energy balls weren't much easier. Finally he strayed a bit too close to Sari and was judo flipped over her shoulder. "Ow..." he said from where he landed and noticed the shots aimed at him. "Double ow," he said.

"You don't have to worry about me killing you," said Schzophrona, "My orders were to leave alive so that the Master can deal with you. However, he has authorized me to use an agonizingly-painful paralysis venom." He extended his long tentacle towards Matt.

At that Weirdwolf leapt forward and bit into the tentacle linking to Sari, ripping it off. Schyzo cried in pain as Weirdwolf continued to tear through all his tentacles. Sari fell down onto the ground and gave a sigh of relief as the tentacles on her lost power and fell off. "Thanks, Weirdwolf," she said.

Matt got up and caught a fresh ion blaster that Techo tossed over. "Let's give tentacle face a send off," he said aiming.

Just then, the blast door opened again and Mantichrome came through. "You really though you could lock me out of my own base?" asked Mantichrome before blasting Weirdwolf with electricity, causing the hybrid wolf to yelp in pain.

"Weirdwolf!" called Sari.

"Oh, did the noble savage mean something to you?" said Mantichrome mockingly.

Matt aimed the ion blaster and fired a sustained blast at Mantichrome, only to have it do nothing.

Mantichrome laughed and said, "You thought you could wield that? Only a Cybertronian can use those weapons and you don't have any with you."

Just then, the Autobots drove through one of the doorways before transforming to robot mode. "Oh yes he does," said Bumblebee, readying his stingers.

Mantichrome leered and said, "You're not the only one with a Cybertronian team." He snapped his fingers, causing the blast door to fully open and reveal Sideways, Soundwave, Strapwing, Laserbeak, Ratbat, and a repaired Rumble and Frenzy. "Distracticons, attack!" shouted Mantichrome.

Meanwhile, the E.A.R.W.A.X group had prematurely moved onto the chair session...well...the violence section, anyway. For that reason, as well as to avoid damaging anything not easy to repair or replace, the session was moved to Dinobot Island. There, Pleakley was trying to get his 'students' involved in the stress-relieving practice of arts and crafts.

This was sadly not working...as the localized fires could attribute to.

"Me Grimlock not like art," said Grimlock, "What would me Grimlock want with potholder thingy anyways?"

"Well, it's a way of expressing yourself," said Pleakley.

"Me Grimlock know how to express myself," said Grimlock before smashing a boulder to rubble. "Grimlock, violence is not the answer," said Pleakley, "You need to learn how to create, not destroy. Look how well the Constructicons are doing with their projects."

The Constructicons in question had built a small log hut. Grimlock said in an annoyed voice, "Grimlock think constructor bots showoffs."

"You could gain a few things by learning from them," said Pleakley.

Prowl however was looking at Dirt Bosses project. The little Constructicon had gotten several pieces of scrap metal and was working on something peculiar. Prowl said, "Is it me, or does it look like Dirt Boss is making a-"

Dirt Boss interrupted when he showed his finished project: a hand blaster. "Let me outta here!" he yelled before blasting in various directions.

Pleakley ran for cover in classic Pleakley style...aka: screaming like a pansy. Ratchet had a much more pragmatic solution, namely blasting Dirt Boss with a low-powered beam from his EMP.

"I just want outta here…" moaned Dirt Boss.

"Yeah, I get that," muttered Ratchet, "This whole thing was a waste of time."

"You just need a little more patience," said Lilo, "Don't you think this has been having a good effect on you so far?"

"You mean apart from driving up my oil pressure?" said Ratchet

Pleakley stepped out from behind a rock and said, "Ok, maybe we should skip to Stage 5: Aromatherapy. Wreck-Gar, if you would."

Wreck Gar saluted and pulled out a rotten fish from his backpack.

The Cybertronians winced as the stench hit their olfactory sensors. "Where did that come from?" asked Blackarachnia.

"I don't know," said Wreck-Gar.

As Pleakley talked, Mixmaster whispered to Scrapper, "Hey, watch this." He then aimed his mixing cannon at Grimlock and shot a blot of wet cement at his head.

Grimlock growled and shifted into T-Rex mode before shooting a flamethrower blast at Mixmaster. Mixmaster just narrowly ducked under it and the flames ended up burning Waspinator. Waspinator snapped at that and blasted at Mixmaster, only for the blast to hit Snarl who charged at him. Ratchet and Pleakley watched as it more or less deteriorated from there.

"No, no, no! Senseless violence won't lead to hugging and crying. You're doing it all wrong!" Pleakley had to duck as one of the tables was thrown over his head. "Who threw that?" he demanded, "That was supposed to be a chair!" A laser blast burnt a hole in the floor next to him. "Tables are fine," he said weakly before running behind Ratchet.

"Guys, you don't have to-" started Bulkhead before Rollout picked him up and threw him into the lake.

Meanwhile, the gang at the base was not having as much fun either. Surprisingly, Soundwave turned out to be very talented at military tactics, provided his troops were nonsentient machines such as the Sharkticons. His personal minions were also a pretty big threat.

Matt had ducked into cover with Techo, Chip and Sari to deal with the minions as best they could but it was not going well.

"How many of these things does he has, anyways?" shouted Bumblebee as he blasted another Sharkticon only for three to take its place.

"You'd be surprised," said Matt, sticking his ion blade through a Sharkticon and cutting it lengthways before sending a blast into the mouth of a second.

"Resistance is futile," said Soundwave, "You cannot hope to overcome our sheer numbers."

"Oh, stick a cork in it!" yelled Matt, sending a blast into Soundwave's face.

Jazz smashed several Sharkticons with his nunchucks. "This guy's got fish coming out of every crack," said Jazz as he kicked off one that was gnawing at his foot.

Chris punched one and threw it into its fellows. "Chip...do something!" he yelled.

"Ok, time to pull off the kid gloves," said Chip. He opened his chest cavity and pulled out what looked like a black and indigo blob, until it perked up into a seal-like shape and chirped, "V-Quip."

"Quip? Kill." said Matt frantically, barely holding a Sharkticon away from his face.

The blob looked around in confusion for a second before jumping onto the closest Sharkticon. It quickly covered it from head to foot. Once covered, it morphed the Sharkticon into a more-advanced version. It then started chewing on its former colleagues.

"Good...blob symbiote thing," said Matt as Quip munched through the Sharkticon attacking Matt.

Suddenly, a blue and black blur breezed through the gang, knocking them everywhere. "Blurr, what's your malfunction?" shouted Bumblebee.

The speedster paused, showing the winged jetpack on his back. "Oh, Blurr's perfectly fine," said 'Blurr' as he turned around to show his right optic was red, "He's practically the perfect host."

"Oh crap...not that guy again," said Matt.

"What's up with the funky eye?" asked Jazz.

"Blurr's been bodysnatched by the jetpack," said Bumblebee, "And it's got a bad attitude."

"Then we'll need to clip those wings," said Jazz.

"Good luck," said 'Blurr', zipping up to Jazz and bashing him again "You fools don't have a chance," said Strapwing, "With my fight and Blurr's speed, I'm uncatchable!"

Techo pulled Chip over as Strapwing laid into the group. "Chip...tell me you worked out a way to deal with this guy after last time," he said

"Well, yes, but it would require grabbing his host," said Chip.

Techo said, "Well...that's easy...just don't hate me later." With that, he picked up Chip and looked at Strapwing, "Oi, tin can, catch!"

Strapwing barely had time to look before Chip crashed into Blurr's face. "AH! Get it off me! Get it off of me!" yelled Strapwing.

Techo yelled "What are you waiting for?"

Chip reached two of his arms around and planted them on Strapwing's sides. He then started emitting a computer virus that gave off the sensation of being tickled. "Cichy-cichy-coo," said Chip.

Strapwing couldn't help it and burst out giggling before falling off with a clonk. "Oh...slagheaps," he said as he realized what had happened. It didn't end quite well for Chip or Blurr, as Blurr was still going at high speeds and he ended up crashing into a wall.

Mantichrome sighed and said, "I have no time for this." He went over to the reactor and started pressing some buttons.

"Oh, no you don't," said Optimus as he changed back to fire engine mode, with Dune Runner still on the back. He charged through the Sharkticons and rammed into Mantichrome, sending him flying.

Matt said, "Hey...where did the trailer go?"

Optimus transformed back into robot mode and picked up Dune Runner's body. "Let's get you recharged," he said.

"I think not, Prime," said Sideways before firing at Optimus.

Mantichrome took this opportunity to try and reach the reactor when Sari got into his way. "You're not corrupting anything today, you poisonous snake," said Sari.

Mantichrome gave her a look of deep disgust. "A techno-organic human? Ugh, that's repulsive. If there's anything worse than an organic, it's a machine bonded to an organic," he said in a voice filled with contempt.

Matt pushed a Sharkticon aside and shot a blast into Mantichrome's side. "Coming from the walking robo-trashcan," he said.

"That's 'King' Robo-Trashcan to you," said Mantichrome, "Once I've molded the Allspark into my image, the whole Cybertronian race will have no choice but to bow to me."

Sari readied her energy blades and said, "Not going to happen."

"Foolish cyborg, all I have to do is to give the command and-"

A lightning bolt blasted Mantichrome's head off. "Sorry, pal, but I'm not planning to call you 'king'," said Bumblebee.

Matt looked down the sparking hole and pulled out a grenade. "What a coronation without fireworks?" he said, dropping it down the hole before kicking him over.

The neck of the body twitched for a second before spitting out the grenade, which was half-dissolved with acid. "You're going to pay for that!" snapped Mantichrome, "Once I have my body back, you're going to be among the first I recycle!"

Matt looked at the melting grenade before snapping "YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THEY COST?" he yelled before blasting Mantichrome across the room.

Mantichrome apparently hit a couple of memory chips as he was shot across the room because when he landed, he babbled, "The old grey mare...owes me...a large cake..."

Techo however was looking at the reactor system. "Guys...I don't think this is stopping," he said.

"In that case, I suggest we get Dune Runner re-sparked before hissy boy comes to his sense," said Matt.

Mantichrome twitched and said, "Mommy, don't let the mongoose steal my candy, I'm saving it for later."

"Can't we just hack the Allspark out of it?" asked Chris.

"I've tried," said Techo in an annoyed voice.

"Then we can least see that one last good bot's given a spark," said Sari before skating over to the reactor. She put her hand on it for a second before she opened a compartment and pulled out a hose-like attachment and skating back to attach it to Dune Runner. "Pull that level there, it activates the funneling mechanism," called Sari.

Techo pulled the lever and several lights lit up as the reactor began to funnel energy. However, the half-completed Allspark started to shine much brighter and nearly every light in the machine lit up as a powerful surge of energy shot through the hose and into Dune Runner.

Suddenly, Dune Runner's body lifted off the ground as a bright blue light poured from his eyes. Then his mouth opened and a voice much different from Dune Runner's came out, "Optimus Prime, I have great need of your help."

"That's...not Dune," said Matt, weakly.

"Well observed, Matthew Lynch," said the voice, "I am currently using Dune Runner to express my thoughts. He is, for the moment, the voice of the Allspark." Then the Allspark spoke again, "Optimus Prime, time is short. If action is not taken, I shall be corrupted and much ruin will be wrecked upon this universe."

Matt looked at the gibbering Mantichrome. "No prizes for guessing who will do that," he said

"When Mantichrome awakens, he will try to corrupt me. You must intervene before then," said the Allspark, "Take your solatarium axe and shatter me again before that can happen."

"What?" said Optimus in surprise.

"It must be done," said the Allspark, "You will not be able to remove me or destroy the reactor in time. The only way to prevent my corruption is by scattering my shards again."

Mantichrome began to say slurred words, "Hey...You're...not gonna smash...any..." before Matt blasted him.

"Smeg off, Mantichrome," he said

"I'm not sure if I can," said Optimus, "I already had to disperse your energy once. I don't think I can do it again. Not after all the trouble that's happened because of it."

"I shall be restored again," said the Allspark, "You need not fear that. But if Mantichrome is to be stopped, you must strike me now."

Optimus nodded solemnly and charged at the reactor, his axe held high. Mantichrome just came to his senses moments before the blow was struck. "NOOOOOO!" he yelled just as Optimus brought his axe smashing down upon the Allspark.

The Allspark began to crack, energy flowing out of the cracks and a whining noise beginning. "Staying here bad," said Matt, worriedly.

Dune Runner's body suddenly dropped to the floor. A second later, the color returned to his armor and his eyes became their normal yellow. He sat up and said, "Whoa, what did I miss?"

"Oh...I think the Allspark and the base reactor are about to give us a wonderful anti-matter tan," said Matt sarcastically.

"I don't intend to stay here to find out," said Optimus before activating his comlink and saying, "Professor Sumdac, Code Red, activate the space bridge now!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Chip.

Prime pulled out a plasmadynamic thruster and said, "Just grab onto me."

"Oh, not that teleporter again," moaned Matt before an air raid style siren began, "On second thoughts..."

The gang quickly ran to Optimus as blue energy started to swirl around him. Mantichrome roared with rage and tried to pounce on them, only for them to transwarp out before he got close enough.

Leafstripper groaned as he came round to see his boss ranting. "Leafstripper's head could not feel worse if blown up..."

The gang had just appeared through the space bridge. "What happened?" asked Prof. Sumdac, "Is everything alright?" To answer his question, a brilliant pillar of light suddenly shout out of the water of Lake Eerie, nearly blinding anyone who saw it.

"Big boom," said Matt, shielding his eyes.

Optimus sighed and said, "The Allspark has been dispersed...again."

"Don't beat yourself to much, Prime," said Jazz, "That creep was gonna turn it rotten and you had to save it."

"You found it once, you can find it again," said Matt cheerfully.

"Uh, sorry for sounding out of it, but can someone bring me up to speed?" asked Dune Runner.

Blurr said, "Well...shortly after Sideways ambushed you..." before quickly picking up speed. After a few seconds nobody could understand him.

"Uh, ok, I was dead for a couple of hours, then what?" asked Dune.

"Well, we kinda stormed Mantichrome's base..." said Matt before Blurr took over the explanation again.

"Never mind, I'll hear it later," said Dune Runner, "Ugh, I have such a processor-ache."

"Being dead does that," said Matt.

"So where are the others now?" asked Dune Runner.

"The base exploded in Mantichrome's face," said Matt cheerfully.

"Yeah, I got that, but where are the other guys, Lilo, Stitch, Ratchet, and the others? Those guys?" asked Dune Runner.

"They...they're supposed to be here working on that EARWAX thing," said Matt, confused.

"Is that the group therapy thing Pleakley did with the experiments?" asked Dune Runner.

"Yeah," said Matt

"We better check in on them then," said Optimus as he and Bumblebee activated their comlinks. "Ratchet, what's going over there?" asked Optimus.

"Can't talk right now," said Ratchet, "Need these fragged-up lunatics from- Hey, put him down!"

Optimus and Bumblebee exchanged a look and turned off the comm. There were some things you just didn't want to know.

Back on the island, things were rapidly spiraling out of control. The former clients were now taking part in a free-for-all.

Despite everything Pleakley looked pleased. "This isn't half as bad as my last meeting," he said.

"How could this possibly be better than that?" asked Prowl as he avoided some nails shot out by Dirt Boss.

"You really don't want to know," said Lilo.

Just then, Long Haul ran by screaming with Waspinator chasing him in wasp mode. Wasp was firing blasts of electricity at Long Haul, but they kept bouncing off his shell.

Mixmaster yelled, "Hold on, pal," before sending a blast of liquid nitrogen at Wasp, missing and nearly hitting Pleakley instead.

Pleakley decided this latest near-brush was enough. "THAT'S IT!" he yelled, "DR. OCRAH SAYS WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE HUGGING AND CRYING, WE'RE GONNA HUG AND CRY!" The others stopped to look at Pleakley before all aiming at him. "Oh boy, me and my big mouth," said Pleakley, "Uh, Wreck-Gar, can you come here a second?"

Pleakley whispered something into his audio receptor and Wreck-Gar said, "Ok." He ran off behind a bunch of trees and there soon came the sound of hammering and drilling. A minute later and Wreck Gar re-appeared clad in what looked like half a ton of armor plating.

The groups expressions varied. Ratchet just facepalmed with a sigh. The Constructicons just stared and Blackarachnia started laughing at the sight of it.

Wreck-Gar walked up to Waspinator, who started backing away nervously. "I don't think you're evil, I think you're special," said Wreck-Gar, "You just need a big hug." Before Wasp could get away, the junk bot embraced him in an inescapable hug.

A few minutes later and Matt's group and the other Autobots arrived to find Waspinator crying into Wreck-Gar's shoulder. "Ok...this...is...unique," said Matt before shrugging and taking a photo with his wrist comp.

"You see, all he needed was a little understanding," said Pleakley, "That isn't so hard, is it?"

"It's good blackmail material, I'll say that," said Matt, taking another picture.

"I think we've made a lot of progress today, wouldn't you agree, Bulkhead? Bulkhead?" Pleakley looked around for the missing Autobot.

More crying got Pleakley and Matt's attention and they turned to see Bulkhead, Mixmaster, and Scrapper crying and hugging. Matt shrugged before taking another picture. "Sometimes...this jobs worth it."

Further inspection revealed Blackarachnia and Grimlock apologizing to each other, Swoop and Snarl hugging, the three newest Constructicons sobbing, and Dirt Boss...grumbling to himself about all the 'mushiness'. "Well, 10 out of 11's not bad," said Lilo.

Matt shrugged. "Plus I got blackmail to stop Hightower stealing my gear," he said.

"Well, Dune Runner's back, Mantichrome's master plan's been foiled, and a majority of our more-disagreeable Transformers made a big step in being turned from bad to good," said Chip, "I say this calls for a celebration."

Matt nodded before pulling out a small hand held device. "What are you doing?" asked Sari to Matt.

"Sending Mantichrome some mail," said Matt, pulling out a special virus disk and sending it.

Meanwhile, at the other end of Lake Erie, the Distracticons were pulling themselves out of the water and onto the beach. Mantichrome was swearing in a mix of languages as he walked out of the lake before he noticed a spyware program sitting in his server. "Those mercs have interfered with my plans for the last time," he growled before checking the message.

He cringed in pain as Matt's voice came blaring out, magnified above the comfortable level. "Thank you for activating a little present that me and Techo cooked up specially for you. It's a spyware program that just hooked you up to the NSC infonet and disabled every firewall you have...you should be getting...about...300,000 messages a second about now. Have a nice day," said the message

Mantichrome quickly shouted out, "Soundwave, Schyzophrona, start Operation: Swarm as soon as-" The rest was drowned out as Mantichrome suddenly started babbling random and meaningless things, his body spazing out before falling over and going into convulsions.

Schyzophrona watched in confusion before saying, "I need a new job."

"Affirmative," said Soundwave, "We shall make preparations as soon as possible."

"What are you talking about?" asked Strapwing.

"Mantichrome had a back-up plan in the extremely unlikely case of the Autobots and/or mercs foiling this one," said Schyzophrona, "Now while we wait for our leader to recover, we have a lot of work to do and a lot of calls to make."

"Oh, he can't have it that bad," said Frenzy before wirelessly trying to access Mantichrome's server.

Schyzo managed to say "No wait..." before Frenzy twitched and began singing the NSC national anthem backwards.

Sideways sighed and knocked the speaker over. "C'mon, if we want the boss functioning to see out his big plan, we need to start working now."

* * *

There's another chapter. As you can see, all of the Allspark shard-animated Transformers are all back, including Dune Runner who briefly was dead. And the Constructicons are all on the side of good, even Dirt Boss. In case you haven't picked up, Pleakley's session is based off the Spike episode in Lilo & Stitch: the Series. There's also a bit from the Webworld ep of the original Transformers, specifically Dirt Boss trying to make a break for it during arts and crafts. The part where Mantichrome tried to corrupt the Allspark is based on a couple of things in Transformers mythology where something similar was attempted, usually Megatron's fault. But fortunately, that plan has been foiled but Mantichrome's preparing for big payback. Keep an eye out for the next chap, it'll be up on New Year's Eve. Please review.


	13. Combine and Conquer

**Voyagers Saga:**

**Justice, Bolts, and Gears**

**Chapter 13: Combine and Conquer**

After a few days, Mantichrome was finally able to rid himself of the maddening spam virus. But his hatred for Matt and his crew had not diminished one bit. It had not helped that Mantichrome suspected the spam virus was still active in some form given the strange infonet messages he had received.

"They will all pay dearly for this," growled Mantichrome, "Sideways, have you gotten a connection to Cybertron's datanet yet?"

"Almost...this is not as easy as it looks," said Sideways.

"If I wanted to, I could have you working on it until Doomsday," growled Mantichrome, "I want results, not excuses!"

"Ok...I'll mess it up and have the Elite Guard trace us," retorted Sideways.

"Sideways, my temper diodes are all but blown out and the last one is set to hair-trigger, so you do not want to get saucy with me," growled Mantichrome.

"Then let me concentrate. I can't rush this," said Sideways.

"Very well, but one blunder and you'll be shot straight into the closest black hole," said Mantichrome. "Been there, done that," muttered Sideways.

"Excuse me?" growled Mantichrome.

"Uh, I mean, I should be all done like that," said Sideways.

At that, the console beeped and said, "Access to Cybertron security Net granted."

"See? Just like I said," said Sideways, "Of course, it's going to be hard to manipulate their security systems from here."

"Who says anything about doing it remotely?" said Mantichrome, "I'm taking care of this mission personally." With that, Mantichrome vanished into the console and down the link directly into the security net.

"Uh, okay..." said Sideways, "I guess we'll take care of the other missions then."

The Cybertron Stockades are one of the planet's most secure facilities. And it well-needed to be, considering how it was the prison for captured Decepticons and traitors. It was prepared for virtually any invading force. Of course, no one would have suspected an invasion from the inside. As a result, Mantichrome emerged from a security sensor to find the area deserted.

"Huh, foolish Autobots. Don't know how to run a proper jail," said Mantichrome, "Now let's see who I can recruit."

There were dozens of Decepticons and other Cybertronians in stasis lock within energy cells. Mantichrome went straight to a console and began to review the inmate list. "Hmm, apparently a lot of them have been in here for a while," said Mantichrome, "They'll all be rusty, not good for battle until they're back in shape. But that will take too long. So who are the newest inmates?"

Mantichrome looked at the latest inmates and burst out in a grin, Megatron's own flunkies.

"Hmm, Megatron would only allow the most competent warriors to serve directly under him," said Mantichrome, "They'll be prime candidates for not only their fitness but because they'll want revenge on the Earth Autobots as well."

The controls held out for an impressive 5 seconds before caving under Mantichrome's constant virus attacks. "Alright, let's see how our new warriors are like," said Mantichrome. He walked over to one of the cells that deactivated, which was holding a beige and purple Decepticon. From the look of both the tank treads on his legs and the jet wings on his back, he either transformed into a composite vehicle mode, or he was one of those Triple Changers he's heard about.

The Decepticon walked out of his cell. His blue face looked cold and calculating as he said, "Curious, how is it zat I escaped?" Suddenly, his face spun around and revealed a face that was red with a large chin. "Who cares how? I'm gonna smash zose Autobots into metal discs!" The face spun again, revealing another face like a black jack-o'-lantern. "Ooh, and zen I can play frisbee vith zem. AHAHA!"

Mantichrome blinked in confusion. "Blitzwing, I presume," he said.

Blitzwing switched back to his Icy personality as he looked down at Mantichrome. "What is zis? Some kind of droid?" The Random face popped back up. "Ooh, he's so cute! Can I keep him as a pet? Can I? Can I? AHAHAHAHA!"

Mantichrome glared. "Don't touch the alloy," he said annoyed and starting to think that he should have chosen someone else.

Blitzwing switched back to Icy, "How did zis creature get in here?"

"I'm as sentient as you, I'll have you know," snapped Mantichrome. He added under his breath, "Though a good lot more stable."

He yelped as Blitzwing picked him up with ease. "Explain vy you have let me go," said Blitzwing.

"Why, to allow you to get revenge on the Autobots on Earth," said Mantichrome, "You do have a score to settle with them, right?"

"And vy should I trust you? You could be an Autobot spy…" said Blitzwing before switching to his angry face. "...which I vill crush!" he yelled.

"Oh no, I hate those Autobots as much as you," said Mantichrome, "Besides, if I were working for the Autobots, would I dare to let three of the most terrifying Decepticons out of their cells?"

Blitzwing glared at Mantichrome who was silently thinking, 'Please fall for it' before he was dropped with a yelp and a clang. "You are right, of course," said Blitzwing, switching back to his Icy face.

"Uh, of course," said Mantichrome, "Now, where are the other two?" The other energy cells opened, releasing two Starscream clones. They looked alike except one was mainly orange and had a boxy helmet and the other was off-white and was wearing a conical helmet with a drill tip.

"Oh, I am most grateful for whoever was generous and kind-sparked enough to release us," said the orange Starscream.

"Well, start thanking me, I was the one who released us," said the off-white Starscream.

Mantichrome looked at them. "Let me guess...sycophancy and mistruth," he said, pointing at them.

"Oh, such brilliant deduction," said the orange clone, "Surely you must be one of the most intelligent robots I have ever seen."

"I am not a liar!" said the off-white clone, "And I'm not a clone either, I am the original Starscream."

The orange clone looked at Mantichrome as if to say 'I rest my case'. Mantichrome said, "I let you out for a shot at who locked you in here."

"Oh, just great generosity," said the orange clone, "It would be a great honor to serve under a great leader like you."

"I don't want revenge," said the off-white clone, "I couldn't care less about those Autobots on Earth. I don't feel like ever going back."

Mantichrome looked at the white clone before reversing the meaning function on his audio receptors for the clone in question. "You'll get your chance..."

"Zere's just vun problem," said Icy Blitzwing before switching to Hotheaded, "How are ve going to get to Earth vithout being scrapped by zone puny Autobots and zere guns?"

"I took care of that. Let's just say they're all sleeping on the job," said Mantichrome, referring to the lock-up virus he had sent through the Cybertron network, effectively freezing everyone within a 10 sector radius for 2 hours.

Blitzwing switched to his Icy peronsality and said, "It is still a long distance between here and Earth." Then his Random face popped out and said, "Ooh, maybe ve can hail a taxi? AHAHAHAHA!"

Mantichrome said, "No guards...and I have a person who unlocked every space bridge at the hub..."

Hotheaded Blitzwing sprung up and said, "Zen vat are ve vaiting for? Let's transvarp to Earth and turn zose Autobots into scrap iron!"

Mantichrome said, "That's the spirit I was looking for..." before adding what he knew would make sure he wasn't questioned, "Megatron will be pleased."

"Yes, I cannot express how much joy I will feel in doing the will of the greatest of all Decepticons," said the orange Starscream.

"Megatron? I don't care about what he thinks. I don't think he's a great leader at all," said the off-white one.

Meanwhile, Team Chaar were still trying to fix their ship and were finally almost finished. The gang had kept their heads down after the incident with Sideways and Strapwing.

"I can't vait to leave," said Strika, "Zis planet has been nothing but trouble ever since ve got here."

Blackout said, "What about Scalpel? We cannot leave him here. He is a security risk."

Spittor said, "Dammit...don't mention him. It's bad enough we lost him without Strika asking."

"But he-"

"Was found broken into several dozen pieces," said Spittor loudly, "Don't know how it happened, but he's offline, end of story."

Strika looked over from where she was suspiciously at that before looking down at her work again. "Incoming transmission," chimed the computer suddenly, "Priority 1."

"Vat could possibly be that high a priority?" asked Strika before turning on the monitor.

An image of Megatron appeared and his voice came through, "Attention, Team Chaar. Your supreme leader Megatron speaks."

The team immediately jumped to attention though Blackout and Spittor looked worried. "He found out about Scalpel...we're slag," said Spittor.

"Lord Megatron, We were busy repairing our ship after-" started Strika when Megatron interrupted. "Never mind that, are you positioned on Planet Earth?"

The team was surprised at that. "We are, Lord Megatron. But it's a backwater planet and we have reason to believe the NSC might also have a presence here..." said Strika.

"Excellent," interrupted Megatron, "There are a group of Autobots here that have been a thorn in my gears. I want you to eliminate them along with any organics who might have aligned with them."

Strika at that point noticed something...off about Megatron's tone. "Sir...if I may ask, are you ok?"

"Of course I am," said Megatron, "I am just on an unstable frequency. Do not question me again." Strika glared before being silent. "Now then, I've found a group of mercenaries who I've hired. You will be working alongside them to destroy the Autobots. Here is a picture of their leader," said Megatron before his image was briefly replaced by Mantichrome's.

Strika said, "Ja, my lord. When should we expect his team's arrival?"

"They shall arrive at your ship shortly, as soon as they've gathered some reinforcements," said Megatron, "Transmit your coordinates so they know where to rendezvous."

Strika nodded and pressed a few buttons. "Transmitted," she confirmed.

"Excellent," said Megatron, "Wait there and prepare for battle." With that, he ended his transmission.

Blackout said, "Does anyone else think that was a bit...unusual?"

"Yes, but do you vant to go against Megatron's orders?" asked Strika.

"No...we'll be ready," said Blackout.

"Spittor, contact Oil Slick and Cyclonus and tell zem to prepare for battle," said Strika, "Ze last repairs vill have to wait."

Meanwhile, back at Mantichrome's temporary headquarters, Soundwave was as close as he could get to being smug as he signed off from calling Team Chaar.

"So, big-bot," said Rumble.

"Did they fall for it?" asked Frenzy.

"Yes," said Soundwave in a perfect imitation of Megatron's voice, "They had no idea who they were really talking to."

Rumble and Frenzy laughed. "They have no idea," managed Rumble.

"Our gather is not yet complete," said Soundwave, "Are the inert clones operable yet?"

"Almost...got a problem with one of the personality programs," said Frenzy.

"Mantichrome has prepared a replacement set of personality chips," said Soundwave, "Use them to repair the clone."

"Yes, boss," said Rumble.

"And do not reprogram it to do anything ridiculous," said Soundwave.

"Ah, you take the fun out of everything," whined Frenzy.

Deep in the forests outside of Detroit, a section had been cleared out by the newest inhabitant. One who had a serious chip on her wing strut. "Stupid Starscream," grumbled Slipstream, "How dare he just leave me here on this primitive planet? The next time I see him, I'll blast him out of the sky." At the thought of Starscream, she glared and blasted a few trees till she felt better.

"Whoa, someone needs to learn how to relax." Slipstream spun around to see a purple bot with horns on his black head.

"Who are you?" she said, aiming at the newcomer.

"That's what I was gonna say," said the purple bot, "The name's Sideways. What's yours?"

"Slipstream...now give me a good reason why I shouldn't blow your CPU out," said the Starscream clone

"I just wanna talk," said Sideways, "I had no intention of harming a graciously sleek robot like you."

Slipstream fired a blast next to Sideways. "Try to flatter me again and see what happens," she said.

"Fine, fine," said Sideways coolly, "So what are you doing out in the sticks like this?"

"Keeping out of the way of those Autobots and those flying geckos," said Slipstream.

"Oh, I see, so you're gonna spin the rest of your lifecycle hiding among wood and rock," said Sideways, "Sounds like a fun idea."

Slipstream aimed her blasters at him again. "Rather that than have that yellow one short out every circuit in me," she said.

"Oh yeah, her, yeah, she's got a nasty reputation," said Sideways, "She even beat Nightbird, can you believe that?"

Slipstream seemed impressed at that. "Then she's either tougher then I thought or lucky."

"Hmm, that is an interesting question," said Sideways, "You think you could do any better against her?"

"She got lucky last time," said Slipstream.

"Oh, so you've crossed paths with her," said Sideways.

"Yes...we did," said Slipstream darkly

"Well, a couple of...allies of mine are getting a party together. The theme is 'Destroy the Autobots and their organic buddies'. I can get you an invitation," said Sideways.

Slipstream sneered. "Sounds fun," she said

"Think about it," said Sideways, "If you take out that belly-dragger, that'd put you above Nightbird."

Slipstream smirked. "Count me in," she said.

"Great," said Sideways, "I'll send you the coordinates once we've finished this little project of ours."

Slipstream laughed, "This should be fun."

Meanwhile, things had settled down surprisingly fast with the Autobots. The Dinobots and the techno-organics, excluding Sari and Weirdwolf, were on Dinobot Island. Something about 'learning how to blend in with life' or some mystical balderdash. The Constructicons were proving themselves very helpful around the city.

Matt was enjoying the general peace and quiet himself, it being a nice change for the usual mayhem. He was currently reclining on top of Sumdac Tower. He still had a healthy distance between himself and the space bridge in case it went screwy.

"Now this is a proper day...no mad aliens, homicidal dragons, or brain slugs," he said happily.

Just then, Chip walked out onto the roof. He looked around before spotting Matt. "Oh, Matt, there you are. I've been looking for you," he said.

"I'm not shooting anything today," said Matt, not looking up.

"No, it's not that," said Chip, "Well, it's kind of hard to say outright. Uh, you're pretty much fine with being a mercenary for the rest of your career?"

"I get to see the multiverse, meet people and shoot the evil ones, what's not to like?" said Matt.

"Yeah, it does has its perks," said Chip, "But lately, I've been having second thoughts about that. I mean, I do really want to be doing this stuff for the rest of my life? I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me."

"Not a good time for a midlife crisis. You're free to go back to Kauai," said Matt.

"Yeah, well, I've been thinking," said Chip, "At some point, I'd like to stop with this stuff. I'd like to be my own boss, run my own company. Not a mercenary company, more like technology-production."

Matt did look up at that. "Ok, you do know that Jumba would probably make exploding, mutating or melting devices...or maybe all three. Remember when he tried to upgrade the Bladestorm mess hall?" he said.

Chip shuddered and said, "I still have nightmares about that. But I'm planning on working on my own inventions. But first, I need to start from the ground up."

"Ok, you're a genius. I also know a few good mechanics that could help you set up," said Matt.

"Yes, well, I kinda already made some starts," said Chip, starting to sound nervous.

Matt immediately got suspicious. "Ok...who's helping you? Come clean or I will throw you off the tower," he said cheerfully.

Contrinus was currently taking a little nap on another building. She was peacefully asleep when she woke by the loud cry of Matt yelling, "YOU HIRED THE CONSTRUCTICONS AND TOLD THEM THEY CAN COME BACK WITH US?" Contrinus gave a shriek of surprise before she fell off her perch.

Contrinus immediately flew towards the yell and found Matt dangling Chip over the edge. "WE DO NOT INVITE CRAZY ROBOTS ONTO MY SHIP!" he was yelling over and over.

"What is going on here?" demanded Contrinus.

"Oh, hi Contrinus. I'm just explaining to Chip why his new buddies can't come," said Matt, his eye twitching.

"Oh, well, Draco and I did tell him you wouldn't like his idea," said Contrinus.

"Yeah...suppose so...Chip? Tell your Constructicon buddies they're staying. Otherwise I explain why they cannot come again," said Matt.

"Oh, they're not that bad," said Chip, "Sure, room and board might be a bit expensive, but look how many construction contracts we've gotten so far." He handed Matt a small ream of papers.

Matt looked at the papers then ignited them in his hand. "Not...interested," he said in an almost arctic voice.

"Well, I have done a thorough scan over their systems while I was fixing them," said Chip, as he pulled out a set of blueprints, "Here, see if you can anything objectionable."

Matt glared and was about to fry them too when he noticed the word 'vestigial'. "What are these for?" he said.

"You know, I was quite puzzled about those too," said Chip, "I found a couple of circuits, joints, and parts in them that don't seem to serve any function in either vehicle or robot mode. But I just reinforced them along with the rest of their structure so they're as durable as true Cybertronians."

Matt glared at Chip. "So, not only did you invite them, you made them TOUGHER?" he said.

"Well, mostly so they'll be able to carry more supplies," said Chip, "You have any idea how heavy construction materials are?"

Matt's glare was turned up. "Tell...them...they're STAYING!" he yelled, putting a little dragon roar behind it.

"Ok, ok, I'll tell them," said Chip.

Just then, Techo burst through the door onto the roof. "Matt, urgent message," said Techo, holding out a communicator.

Matt absent-mindedly dropped Chip and took the communicator. "What's the message?" asked Matt.

They stopped as they saw Draco's and Contrinus's stares of horror. Matt looked over the edge. "Erm...oops," he said as there was a distant sound like a bell being hit.

"Uh, Chip's survived worse, right?" said Techo.

The two experiments glared. "Let's hear the message," said Matt cheerfully before hitting playback.

An image of the Galvin councilor, Davine, appeared. "Captain Lynch, we've a crisis on our hands," said Davine, "The Empire has gained too much ground. We need more ships to secure our defenses. We understand that you still have business with the Cybertronians, but I'm afraid we'll have to postpone the diplomatic mission until things are more stable. Prepare your ship for departure and come back to Nullspace."

Matt sighed. "So much for peace talks," he said.

"Don't you think that's a bit abrupt?" asked Techo, "If things were that desperate, wouldn't they be pushing us to get to Cybertron ASAP?"

"We're on thin ice as it is. I have no wish to be arrested again," said Matt.

"Has Jumba fixed that broken hyperdrive yet?" asked Draco.

"Yeah, he fixed it yesterday, at least enough for us to limp to a spacedock," said Techo.

"Well, I think we better round up our guys then," said Matt.

At that moment, the space bridge began to power up. "Oh, now what?" said Matt, annoyed.

As soon as the orb of energy appeared between the prongs, a pair of robots jumped out. From the insignias on their hips, Matt could tell they were Elite Guard members. However, they looked different from the other Autobots Matt has seen. They were slimmer, younger, and they didn't seem to have any wheels or any parts that could belong to a ground vehicle.

"Great...more of them," Matt muttered.

"We reached the planetside," said the orange bot.

"Be keeping eye out for Decepticons," said the blue bot.

"Oi! Who are you two?" said Matt trying to get their attention.

The two twins, Matt could easily tell they were twins, turned to look at Matt. "Look, organics," said the orange one.

"What did Sentinel Prime say we should be doing if we were to meet organics?" asked the blue bot.

"He said we should to be avoiding contaminating touch," said the orange one.

"Organics not look so deadly," said the blue one.

Matt glared before turning dragon and grabbing them both. "I'm not in the mood. Who are you? Answer or I'll...erm...bite your head off," he said.

"Did Sentinel say they could transform to big lizard creature?" asked the blue one.

"No, organics don't have circuit to change to other modes," said the orange one.

Matt growled angrily and was about to blast them with plasma flames when Jazz came up, having detected the space bridge activation. "Whoa, put 'em down, Matt. I know these guys."

"Comrade Jazz, sir," said the orange one.

"It is good to be seeing you again," said the blue one.

Techo said, "What...hold up...who are these guys, Jazz?"

"They're the new cats on the Elite Guard," said Jazz, "Jetfire and Jetstorm, our first flying aces."

Matt glared at them. "I take it Sentinel is their boss," he said.

"Relax Matt," said Jazz, "They know how to chill on Earth. They don't got a bad beat with organics." "Humans are very interesting," said the blue one.

"They know how to be making good entertainment like video games," said the orange one.

"Ok, I might sound like an idiot, but which one's Jetfire and which one's Jetstorm?" asked Draco.

The two twins grinned before the blue one started spinning his arms, creating a huge amount of wind that blew Matt off of them. Then the orange one tossed a fireball at Matt, hitting him on the butt. "Never mind, I can tell who's who now," said Draco.

Matt glared at Techo before turning back to human. "Well, not our problem, we're leaving anyhow," he said.

"What are you two down on Earth?" asked Jazz to the twins, "You're not after the Magnus Hammer, are you?"

"Not our mission, still yours," said Jetfire.

"Why have you not brought it back yet?" asked Jetstorm.

"My orders are to make sure that it doesn't fall into the 'Cons' hands," said Jazz, "Optimus' crew have it, so there's no need to bug."

"Oh, but we've got bigger problem," said Jetfire.

"Big breakout at stockades," said Jetstorm, "Someone broke out Decepticons we brought back."

Matt stopped at that. "What?" he said.

"Ya mean Blitzwing and them crazy Starscream clones are free?" asked Jazz.

"Ja, and evidence suggests NSC did it," said Jetfire.

"Might be big battle coming," said Jetstorm.

"Why in hell would the NSC want those loonies on the loose?" said Matt before seeing the twins staring at Matt's NSC badge on his battle armor.

"Wait, wait, before we start pointing fingers and blasters," said Contrinus, "What proof did you guys find that suggests the NSC helped those Decepticons escape?"

Jetfire said, "NSC always wanted Decepticon prisoners for themselves. Sentinel Prime says a NSC stun virus was used on the guards."

"A stun virus?" said Techo suspiciously, "You wouldn't happen to have a copy of that on you, would you?"

"Sentinel did provided isolated sample for proof, so that we be arresting NSC on Earth," said Jetstorm. He pulled out a small datapad and held it down to Techo.

"Personally, we thinking Sentinel is making big jump of conclusions," said Jetfire.

"NSC could not get on Cybertron that easy," said Jetstorm.

"Yeah...they'd have left more craters," said Techo, looking at the coding. "Yeah, this is from the NSC cyberwarfare division...but it's been heavily modified," he said finally.

"Say Techo, there wouldn't happen to be any messages in the coding, would there?" said Matt.

Techo called up the coding and pressed a few buttons before dropping the controller in shock. The XANA symbol was clearly visible.

"What symbol is that?" asked Jetfire.

"Big trouble," said Matt, "I had a feeling that oily snake would be behind it."

"We gotta call the councilor, tell what's happening," said Techo.

"Speaking of which, would you mind checking that message for any signs of forgery?" asked Matt.

Techo turned on the message again and checked the coding before saying, "Filtered out some altered visuals, let's see who really sent it," and playing the original message. The picture of Davine distorted until it was far more robotic, not even resembling a Galvan. A familiar monotone replaced the councilor's voice.

"Who is that?" asked Jetstorm.

"Soundwave, who works for Mantichrome, who is the guy who sprung your prisoners," said Matt grimly.

"Call your boss...before he starts a war his people can't win," said Techo.

Jazz quickly went to the space bridge's console and activated its tachyon communicator. "Sentinel Prime, sir, we got a bad scene building up. There's a major bad guy who's trying to set you up for a bad smackdown with the NSC, who aren't the ones who let those 'Cons loose."

Matt walked into view. "Sentinel Prime, my name is Captain Matthew Lynch. We have evidence that will..."

"I don't have time for pathetic excuses," said Sentinel Prime, "The Autobots have to deal with those NSC backstabbers for letting out our prisoners."

"Oh, for smeg's sake...we know who busted your prisoners out, you..." began Matt before Jazz had the correct action of pushing him out of range of the comm.

"Uh, I've been scanning the sample Jetfire and Jetstorm brought, and I don't think it's NSC style. There's a major creep bot that's trying to scramble up the Autobot defenses," said Jazz.

Sentinel smirked, "Oh please. The NSC doesn't use bots for their armies, something they insist on."

"But NSC ain't got those 'Cons, they were broken out by this bad dude named Mantichrome," said Jazz.

Sentinel leaned in close to the comm. as Matt managed to get back in view of the comm. "The intel's a load of scrap. There's no Cybertronian of any side with that name. Now arrest those NSC organics!" he yelled and stopped as Matt said, "What a huge chin."

Sentinel glared at Matt and yelled, "Why you little-" before Jazz prudently severed the connection.

"I'm right, his chin's big enough for its very own area code," said Matt.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard them all before," said Jazz, "But this is major bad mojo. If Mantichrome has those 'Cons, there's only thing he's going to do with them."

"Well, for a start, if Sentinel does cause a war with the NSC colonies, it won't last longer than 72 hours," said Techo, adding, "They have 3 main stream navy fleets and two major bases. It'll be a massacre. A lot of the NSC locals here want payback for the colony attacks years ago."

"Yeah, there's that," said Draco, "But think of what Mantichrome could do here."

"Yeah, the NSC doesn't have a proper defense fleet in this version of Sol. They leave it to militia ships," said Chris.

"Which means they're gonna hit this city like a shooting range," said Draco.

"They'd have to land to do that...but yeah," said Chris.

"Well, maybe we're overreacting a bit," said Contrinus, "I mean, it's only Mantichrome, a couple of his minions, plus the Decepticons he's just busted out. That's not much, right?"

Meanwhile, at Team Chaar's vessel, the team stood to attention as a space bridge portal opened and a small group of bots appeared. Blitzwing came out, followed by the two Starscream clones. Blitzwing noticed Team Chaar and he said, "Team Chaar, it's been such a long time. I didn't expect to find you on zis planet." He switched to his Random face and said, "I bet you came here for ze nightlife and ze oil. Zere's plenty of zat here. AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Strika sighed. "Blitzwing...great," she said to herself. Blitzwing's lack of sanity was legendary.

"Oh, the infamous Team Chaar, led by the great General of Destruction, Strika," said the orange Starscream, "It shall be a high honor to fight along such an elite group of warriors."

"I'm not impressed," said the off-white Starscream, "I've seen turbofoxes scarier than them." The team all stared at the white clone before slowly moving away from Strika to give her a good run up.

Blitzwing switched back to his Icy face and said, "Don't mind him. He's one of Starscream's clones. He represents his lying side."

"I do not lie!" said the off-white clone, "I'm the original Starscream."

Strika glared at the white clone before saying, "I vill let him off...zis time."

Then Mantichrome came through the space bridge portal before it closed. "Good, you're all ready to go," he said, "But it looks like we have a few stragglers."

Strika said icily, "Stragglers? I do not like surprises from...mercenaries."

Another Starscream clone came through the portal followed by another one who was immediately aimed at by the whole team. "YOU...YOU LITTLE RAT...!" yelled Strika as Sideways came out of the portal.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," said Sideways, "I think we're getting off on the wrong stabilizing servo."

"You set us up against the Autobots and insulted us to boot. You nearly got us all offlined...and I heard one of them mention you'd been at their base too...little turncoat," said Oil Slick, furiously.

"Ok, ok," said Sideways, "I admit I did try to stir things up with both sides. But I was hoping that my barbing you would just make you more ferocious in battle. But I didn't anticipate that you'd be as prone to in-fighting at the Autobots."

Strika picked up Sideways by the throat. "If not for Megatron's orders, I vould tear you in half and let Spittor eat vhat's left...and you vill not be in his service forever," she said before throwing him down.

"Duly noted," said Sideways.

Slipstream, however, was taking everything in. "Well, well, looks you've managed to bring together all my brothers," she said.

Oil Slick groaned, "Another clone...just what we need."

Slipstream said, "Hey...I got a name, buster."

"Oh, and vat is your name?" asked Strika.

"It's Slipstream," said the female Starscream, "And I suppose my brothers have gotten their own names as well."

"Yes, I am the mighty Thundercracker," said the egomaniacal Starscream, "You may bow if you wish."

"Um, I'm Skywarp, PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" cried the cowardly Starscream.

Strika looked at the clones with Blitzwing. "And those two?" she said.

"Alas, for all my creator's staggering brilliance, he has neglected to bestow a humble name for me," said the sycophant Starscream.

"I don't know about you, but I have a name," said the liar Starscream, "I just don't want to tell you it."

"So...too big a CPU for a name on the orange one and the white one's too dumb for von?" said Strika, her team chuckling

"Perhaps a demonstration of their abilities is in order," said Mantichrome, "I hear that each clone has developed a unique power of their own."

"Alright, alright, get on vith it," said Strika. The orange clone flew up into the air, closer to the sun. His wings began to glow as he absorbed the sunlight. When he had gathered enough, he shot out a huge blast of solar energy through his blasters.

Team Chaar seemed impressed. "Quite good...Thermic cannons...vat about him?" said Strika, pointing at the white clone.

"I don't think I'll show you," said the white clone but he turned into his jet mode. He then zoomed close to the ground. He smashed through several boulders and a couple of trees, but he didn't suffer any damage.

"Impressive indeed," said Strika, approvingly, "Vat is the mission details?"

"It's quite simple," said Mantichrome, "As soon as the last of our group shows up, we go to Detroit and blast it to the ground, making sure we get every Cybertronian that's not on our side and every organic in the city."

"And when the NSC arrives to evaporate us in revenge?" said Strika. The NSC's warnings of retribution on races attacking Earth were legendary.

"If they were to respond, they would have done so after you landed here," said Mantichrome.

The Decepticon team smirked as this became apparent. "We shall begin at once."

The orange clone landed and said, "How well did I do? Not as well as my skilled brothers I'm sure."

The white clone also landed in robot mode. "I don't need you to give me a name," he said, "I bet you can't even come up with a good one."

Strika pointed at the orange clone and said, "You are Sunstorm and as for you..." she said, pointing at the white clone, "You are Ramjet."

"Oh, such a perfect name. You really do have a talent for naming humble clones like me," said Sunstorm.

"Ramjet? I hate it," said Ramjet, "I'm not going to call myself that. You might, but I won't."

"Fine, then don't be Ramjet," said Stika.

"I never said I didn't want to be named Ramjet," said Ramjet.

At that, the space bridge portal opened yet again. "Now who is coming?" said Strika, glaring at Mantichrome.

"The last of our team," said Mantichrome before Soundwave came out of the portal, followed by his minions, Strapwing, and two more Starscream clones, one red and one teal.

"More clones?" said Strika, angrily. This 'Mantichrome' was getting on her circuits.

"There is power in numbers," said Soundwave, "The Autobots and their comrades will surely be defeated."

"Yes, and when they are, all their precious parts shall be mind, mine, mine I tell you!" shouted Dirge.

"Oh, how comes he gets to have all the parts?" moaned Thrust, "He's probably going hog all the good kills. All of you probably are. How comes I'm always being left out?"

Strika demonstrated impressive self -ontrol in not blasting them there and then. "Let's just do zis mission," she said.

"By all means," said Mantichrome, "Soon, Detroit will be nothing but molten slag and ashes, with Autobots and their friends in the middle of the pyre!"

Meanwhile, back at the gang and they were preparing for what would be an inevitable attack. "We can presume that the NSC will not be coming to help. If Sentinel idiot is prepping for war, they'll be moving to blockade him," said Matt.

Dirt Boss walked in and said, "Yo, we're runnin' low on steel girders. Ya know where we can find any more?"

Matt didn't pay attention. "I know that the most of the Autobots saw were converted colonial ships, but the NSC will probably not take chances this time. We're talking a full on attack if Sentinel pushes his luck."

"Hey, I'm talkin' here!" snapped Dirt Boss.

Chloe gave him an annoyed look and said, "Do you mind? We're having a war council here."

Matt agreed, "Yes, go annoy someone else. We're trying to avoid your race getting nuked into the ground."

"We ain't part of the Autobot/Decepticon thing," said Dirt Boss, "We're freelancers."

"If Sentinel restarts this war, the NSC won't care that you're freelancers," said Matt darkly

"Whatcha lookin' at, anyways?" asked Dirt Boss.

"The fleet stats for the local fleets being deployed," said Matt, showing a holographic list of ships, including one that looked like a legless and clawless scorpion, the words 'Devastator Class' rotating underneath it.

Dirt Boss looked at them and whistled before saying, "Those are some starships, particularly that one." He pointed at the Devastator class.

"And they're all aimed at Sentinel Prime's bunch and the rest of Cybertron…" said Chloe.

Matt finished "...and crewed by people who lived on the colonies that were attacked by the Decepticons."

"Sounds rough," said Dirt Boss.

"Yes, and if you want to make yourself phenomenonally useful, I suggest you go reinforce as many building bases in Detroit as you can," said Chloe. Dirt Boss glared at Chloe before transforming to his vehicle form and driving off.

"So we gotta muster up all the Transformers we've got with us," said Lilo.

"It's not a big number. The Bladestorm's cannons could blast a Decepticon apart...but in a built-up area, not a chance. We'd do more harm than good," said Matt.

Chris said, "What about Serina? Hell, she was designed to take Decepticons to the cleaners."

"Good idea," said Matt, "Especially considering that Mantichrome has Karnak. So...on that note, is she combat capable yet? She took a bad beating last time." said Matt.

"Haven't you been working on her?" asked Chris, "She is your mech."

"Technically, it's 'was', since she has 'free will' now," said Matt, "Not to mention that we've been a bit busy."

"I bet Ratchet could fix her up," said Chloe.

"Don't think that ghost mechs are close enough to Cybertronians," said Matt.

Chip said, "Hightower could bypass those lockout systems and repair the damage."

"What would he know about ghost mechs?" asked Matt.

"The Constructicons have an innate ability to comprehend constructions with just a glance at a blueprint," said Chip, "Plus, Hightower's a surgical engineer. He can do some very precise work if he needs too."

"Sure...I'll just call up a restricted file," said Matt sarcastically.

"Already did so," said Chip, briefly displaying a hologram of a basic ghost mech's structure.

Matt sighed. "Fine...but you keep an eye on him," he said.

"Will do," said Chip.

Suddenly, several alarms started blaring. The gang winced and clapped their hands over their ears. "WARDEN, what's the meaning of this?" demanded Matt.

"Long range sensors have picked up increased Decepticon traffic on an approach vector with Detroit's city center," said WARDEN.

"What? Now? How many?" asked Matt.

"Sensors indicate attack strength. I have attempted to inform NSC FLEETCOM but communications are offline," said WARDEN.

"Oh great, what next?" asked Matt.

The ground shook and Matt turned to see columns of smoke from the direction of the city center. "I had to say it," said Matt before turning to Chip, "Get Serina combat ready as fast as you can."

"Should we get a call to Scorponok?" asked Chip, "He and his team might be able to help us."

"Do it. No need to call Optimus. He's probably half way there already. WARDEN, get everything we have down there: tanks, men, starfuries, the kitchen sink. I don't care, just do it," said Matt, turning to WARDEN's hologram for the next part.

Matt's men rushed to the sight of the bombing. If they couldn't get rid of the Decepticons, they can at least provide coverfire.

Slipstream was the first to realize they were there when three AA plasma blasts knocked her into the street.

"Ow, oh, you're going to pay for that!" snapped Slipstream before firing her blasters at the mercs.

The blasts slammed into the AA tank that had shot her down and it exploded. Three more tanks rumbled into range and fired cluster shells at her and upwards at the other Decepticons.

"Oh no, anti-aircraft guns, we're doomed!" cried Skywarp.

Sunstorm however said, "Such impressive weapons, I almost don't want to do this," he said before absorbing some solar energy and firing at the tanks.

"Their feeble blasters don't have a chance against my awesome powers," said Thundercracker before flying close to them and letting out a sonic boom.

"How comes they get to do all the destruction?" whined Thrust, "Why I can't I get to blast those humans. I bet those humans have better weapons than me." A laser bolt from a trooper's shoulder blaster almost proved him right had he not got out the way in time.

"Don't worry, I won't attack them," said Ramjet before blasting at the mercs.

By now, the merc marines were just running for it, a few throwing down their weapons to run faster. Optimus Prime arrived to see a tank trying to cover the retreat go up in a fireball.

Jazz came right behind him and looked up to see the various Starscreams. "Is my viz-scanner acting up, or are there a bunch of funky-colored copies of Starscream up there?" he asked.

Suddenly, Dirge swooped down and started strafing them. "The Autobots are mine, mine you hear me? Mine!"

The Autobots dived for various cover before Bumblebee said, "Isn't that guy supposed to be offline?"

Thrust passed over, shooting energon flames he passed. "So should he," said Optimus before using his fire-extinguishing foam to put out the flames.

Thrust was readying for another pass when a plasma ball hit him in the back and a blur slammed into him before both shapes vanished into a building.

A second later, Thrust and Matt came flying out again. "Oh, how comes I always have to be the one that's attacked?" moaned Thrust, "And how comes I don't have plasma powers like this organic? It's just not fair."

"Get back here, you coward!" roared Matt, flying after the Decepticon in dragon form and seemingly intent on doing the job properly this time.

"I'm not the coward, he's the coward," said Thrust, pointing at Skywarp, "How comes he get to be the coward? I want to be the coward."

Matt finally managed to dig his claws into Thrust's feet and pulled him down, both rolling along the ground. "I've dealt with you once...care for a rematch?" said Matt, getting back up.

Just then, a pair of laser beams hit Matt in the side, knocking him away. Matt looked up to see a purplish-red harrier jet fly over him, firing several shark-faced missiles at him. Matt managed to take off again just before the missiles exploded where he had been a second before.

Ratchet also spotted the jet and said, "No, that's impossible."

"What's impossible? It's just another clone," said Matt.

"No it isn't, it's Starscream," said Ratchet.

"But, I saw him as a head in Omega Supreme," said Matt, "He couldn't have his body back."

The jet swooped down towards them and transformed. However, instead of Starscream's head, a large holographic projection of a head was in its place. "Quite right, Matt," said Mantichrome, "All the more worst for you."

Matt snapped at that and blasted a column of plasma flames at Mantichrome. Mantichrome had Starscream's body fly out of the way. "You'll have to do better than that," taunted Mantichrome, "Starscream was the best flyer among the Decepticons. That's how he got the title of Air Commander."

It was well known that people should not be cocky as that would only mean trouble. This was proven as Chloe swooped in out the smoke and head butted into Mantichrome's back.

Mantichrome nearly lost control over Starscream's body before straightening it out. "Don't you have another bot to annoy, insect?" said Mantichrome before shooting at Chloe

Chloe rolled to avoid the blasts and spat a lightning bolt that Mantichrome avoided only to land in the 'embrace' of Matt's claws. Mantichrome, however, was prepared. "Thrust, assistance," he called. Immediately, Thrust left off his complaining and grabbed Matt before throwing him off Mantichrome. "Well done, Thrust," said Mantichrome.

"Why can't I ride around in a transforming jet?" whined Thrust.

Chloe, despite everything, said, "What's with that guy? Last time he was a real hothead."

"Funny thing about that," said Mantichrome, "When your brother blew him up, I had to rebuild him. Fortunately, I managed to procure his primary processor, but the personality chips were damaged. So I had to go through a new set. So now instead of representing Starscream's anger, Thrust represents his envy."

"So you trade one Deadly Sin for another," said Chloe, "Should have gone for pride."

Thrust said, "It's not fair. Thundercracker got that. Why couldn't I...?" before Chloe cut him off with a lightning blast.

Meanwhile, Matt was unsteadily getting to his feet, shifting back to human form. "When I get that- HEY!" Rather unexpectedly, Matt found himself being picked up by the leg. He managed to crane his head up enough to see a grinning face looking down at him. "Oh look," said Random Blitzwing, "It's my old dancing partner. I recognize zat temper and aim anyvhere. AHAHAHAHAHA!"

Matt said, "You didn't remember everything. You grabbed the wrong end," he said before spitting a plasma blast at Blitzwing.

Blitzwing yelped and dropped Matt. He switched to his Icy face as he examined the burnmark. "Vell, zat vas unusual," he said.

Matt said, "I'm a bit hard to disarm, remember?" teased Matt, getting up.

Blitzwing switched his Hotheaded face and said, "Not if I rip your arms off, bonebag!" Matt stuck his tongue out and ran between Blitzwing's legs. "You're not getting avay zat easily," said Blitzwing before transforming to tank mode and rumbling after Matt, firing heat shells at him.

Matt was harder to hit then he looked, dodging behind abandoned cars or ducking round corners or simply using plasma control to raise shields. "What's the matter? Your targeting optics on the blink?" said Matt, running into a deserted storage building.

Blitzwing rumbled into the building and yelled, "Come out, or I melt zis flimsy construction down on top of you!"

Matt was standing next to a pillar. "I'm right here, tin can," he said, dodging as Blitzwing fired, melting the pillar before he stood next to another. "Nyeh," he said cheekily.

Blitzwing kept up a flamethrower-like blast as his turret spun to follow Matt. "You can't outrun me forever!" shouted the Triple Changer.

"Nope...but this building can run out of support struts...and I can escape via the skylight," said Matt, turning dragon and shooting out the skylight as the last pillar fell and the roof gave a final sounding groan.

"Oh slag," said Blitzwing and tried to get out the door before it collapsed.

Matt hovered in place with a smirk as the building collapsed and an 'ouch' was heard from the rubble.

Meanwhile, Chloe was sparring with Thundercracker in midair. "I had been meaning to get even for you marring my perfect blaster," said Thundercracker before punching Chloe in the gut. Chloe yelped before biting down on the fist on reflex. Thundercracker cried out in pain before saying, "You shall regret that, you insolent worm!"

He was about to blast her with his weapon when a blob of cement suddenly plugged it. "How bout you pick on someone your own size?" The two of them looked to see Mixmaster and Scrapper.

Thundercracker was a bit confused when he saw them and pointed at Mixmaster. "Haven't I seen you before?" he said.

"Hey, ain't that one of them wacky jets that attacked us at the space bridge?" asked Scrapper.

"Yeah, and he's still got as big a mouth as ever," said Mixmaster.

Thundercracker then twigged. "Hey...now I know you. How dare you glue me to inferior bots!" he yelled and fired his blaster at them.

The two Constructicons quickly moved out of the way. "Ok, maybe we didn't think this fighting thing through enough," said Scrapper.

"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" yelled Thundercracker before being covered in electrical arcs and shuddering in place as Chloe dug her claws into his back and channeled a charge down them.

Thundercracker fell down, knocked into temporary stasis lock. "Uh, thanks for that," said Mixmaster to Chloe.

"I just wanted to shut that idiot up," said Chloe, getting up and pulling her claws out.

"Ok, you think you can shut that idiot off too?" asked Scrapper, pointing at the huge helicopter coming towards them. It transformed into Blackout, who landed with a big thud as well as a shockwave of electromagnetic energy.

Chloe jumped back as the two Constructicons were frozen in place. "Hmm...Guess it's just you n me, chopper boy," she said, readying an electrical blast.

"I'm not scared," said Blackout as he pulled out a blaster made from his helicopter mode's tail, "I've taken out robots 10 times bigger than you." He pointed his blaster at Chloe and shot energy discs at her. Chloe took off just in time but was forces to keep moving to avoid being blasted.

However, a huge steamroller quickly came rolling up the street, changing into Rollout as soon as he was close enough. "Hey, I'm more your size, fight with me," he said before slamming into Blackout.

Blackout turned his gun and said, "As you wish," and began firing.

Rollout was knocked back a bit by the blast. But then he opened up his left leg, extending his tamper. He then started piledriving it on the road, making the ground shake. Blackout staggered back and found the shaking made it hard for him to slam his foot down to activate his EM attack.

Chloe took that opportunity to move out of the way so she could recover a bit. However, the street she decided to dodge down was already occupied by another recovering fighter. Chloe bumped into the back of someone and turned to see Slipstream. They both angrily said 'YOU!'

Ratchet, being the field medic, rushed to Mixmaster and Scrapper. "I'll have you two up in a nanoklik," said Ratchet as he warmed up his EMP for a revival effect. He stopped as a wall at the end of the street was demolished and Chloe in her full dragon form and Slipstream fell down and rolled into the street, trying to kick the hell out of each other.

"What's with those two?" asked Scrapper, who had just recovered his vocal processor.

"Trust me, you don't want to know," said Ratchet with a slight shudder.

Matt came around the corner in human form to see the fight. He sighed and switched to dragon form and spat a plasma ball between them. "BREAK IT UP!" he roared.

Slipstream briefly paused before she was blasted back and stunned by a combined plasma and lightning bolt. Matt turned to Chloe and asked, "What is it with you and Deceptifemmes? You're always picking fights with them."

"They shouldn't try to kill me," said Chloe, shifting down to human form along with Matt.

"Ok, who's left now?" asked Matt. Just then, a pair of purple blasts went over their head. They looked down the street to see a six-wheeled battle tank rolling up towards them.

"Uh oh," said Matt, dodging for cover.

Strika transformed back into robot mode and yelled, "Slipstream, Blackout, quit fooling around and squash zese organics! Zey can't be zat hard to crush!"

Chloe and Matt turned back to dragon and spat their attacks in Strika's direction.

Strika staggered back from the attack. "I can crush Autobots, I can crush you!" she said before firing at the two of them.

Ratchet winced as the overconfident Lynches were sent flying, "This battle is going to get much worse before it's over," he said to himself as he applied the nullifying magnetic pulse to Mixmaster and Scrapper.

Cyclonus suddenly appeared in front of Ratchet. "The battle is over for you...old bot," he said before aiming a slash with his swords, only for Long Haul to block the blow. Cyclonus expected his swords to go right through Long Haul. However, Long Haul had his back turned to Cyclonus and his swords bounced off his shell. "You little tin can," said Cyclonus angrily.

"Y-you l-leave them al-l-lone," stuttered Long Haul.

"I think not," said Cyclonus before he started hammering on Long Haul's back.

Bulkhead suddenly appeared from nowhere, slamming Cyclonus aside. "Valiant move, Autobot," said Cyclonus, "But foolish." But before he could get up, Mixmaster glued him to the ground with his quick-drying cement.

"Why don't ya stick around, bub?" said Mixmaster before pouring a little more cement over Cyclonus' mouth.

"Mix, ya gotta find more puns than 'stick'," said Scrapper, "You should do something like-"

"METAL SHARKS WITH LEGS!" shouted Long Haul.

"Uh, not exactly what I was thinking about," said Scrapper. Scrapper then yelled as a Sharkticon decided to test what he tasted like.

Meanwhile, Matt and Chloe were getting unsteadily to their feet. "Ok, the tank lady's tougher than she looks," said Matt.

"And she was plenty tough-looking to begin with," said Chloe.

Strika rumbled into view and took aim at them However, before she could fire, a pair of shuriken flew into her cannons. They didn't blow up, but the backfire did send her flying back.

"Prowl...good timing," said Chloe

Prowl landed besides her and said, "I would have helped sooner, but two of the Starscream clones kept me occupied."

"I get that...the whole gang's in town apparently," said Matt.

"It seems we underestimated Mantichrome's leadership capabilities," said Chloe.

"Indeed. There's no telling who else he- UGH!" Prowl was suddenly shot backwards by a scarlet beam of energy.

Chloe and Matt looked to see who fired it and saw a black and red mech with a smoking gun barrel on his outstretched arm. "Well, well, look what I found," he said.

"Uh oh, Karnak, how are you doing?" said Matt cheerfully.

"Not bad, all considering," said Karnak, "But I've been itchy for a lot of action lately, with plenty of collateral damage."

"Good for you, hold still," said Matt and spat a plasma blast into the floor at Karnak's feet, causing the road to collapse taking the mech with it.

"That's not likely to stop him, is it?" said Chloe.

"Nope," said Matt.

True enough, Karnak soon emerged from the hole. "That was amusing," he said, "But now I must-" He was cut off when he was hit by a triple flamethrower attack. The Dinobots stepped forward, blasting away with their fiery breaths.

Matt nodded and said, "Not bad, not bad at all. However, ghost mechs were built to withstand intense heat."

Karnak demonstrated this by aiming his main blaster at the Lynches and firing.

However, a long pair of robotic arms grabbed them and pulled them out of the way at the last second. The two of them looked back to see they were being held up by Hightower's cherry picker arms. "What could you two do without me, Hightower?" he said boastfully.

Matt managed to turn to say, "Hey...you're supposed to be working on getting Serina ready for battle...urm...not that I'm complaining."

"Taken care of," said Hightower. Then a white blur flew over them and barreled into Karnak.

Karnak was sent flying back into a building and managed to right himself in time to see another ghost mech fire point blank into his chest with a railgun.

"What can I say?" said Hightower, "When something needs fixin', no one does the job quicker and better than me, Hightower."

Serina however glared at Karnak. "What's the matter? Can't stay offline?" she taunted.

"At least I have my freedom," said Karnak, "You're still the humans' puppet."

"Nobody's controlling me, Karnak. I'm helping the humans cause I want too," said Serina, she and Karnak circling.

"Even more pathetic," said Karnak, "You can do anything you want now, but you'd rather stay and protect your humans. You're just like a dog. Only in this case, I'd say you're a bi-"

Karnk's opinion of his fellow mech would stay a mystery as Serina, grabbed Karnak, swung him round and then pulled him close to knee him in the chest and then the face as he doubled up.

"She definitely takes after you," said Chloe to Matt.

Matt grinned. "I'm a good teacher. Now let's go help the Autobots. I think Serina has this in hand," he said.

The Lynch siblings were running through an alleyway to get to the fighting when they heard a feline yowl, one that doesn't come from an alley cat.

"What the hell was that?" said Matt weakly. A pair of red eyes appeared in the shadows, accompanied by growling.

Chloe glared at her brother. "You HAD to say it," she said.

Suddenly, Ravage leapt from the shadows and pounced onto Chloe. The jaguar-like bot roared as it tried to claw Chloe to shreds. Matt jumped on the robot's back, transforming his hands and digging the claws in. "Get off my sister, you overgrown iCat." Ravage snarled before turning his missile launchers on Matt and firing. Matt settled for screaming and dancing around to avoid the missiles.

Chloe's eyes glowed red before she yelled, "BAD KITTY!" and letting off a 1000-volt charge, throwing Ravage off of her. Ravage was a bit surprised by this but he quickly got back up and got ready to blast Chloe into the next area code.

However, Chloe pointed and said, "Oh look, a big juicy rat!" Ravage, despite himself turned to look. When he saw no rat, he turned back in time for a lighting blast to send him flying through the building at the end of the alley...and out the other side.

"Why didn't I think of that?" asked Matt.

Chloe said sweetly, "Because sometime, you don't think straight.

Matt was about to object when his memory supplied an ample list of examples. "Good point," he conceded

"Now then," said Chloe, "How about we deal with some Deceptiscum?"

"Yes...let's start with that killer kitty. I'm in a tin opener mood," said Matt.

Just then, Chloe looked up and said, "Actually, I'm in the mood for a little BATting practice."

Matt looked confused. "What?" he said. Just then, Ratbat swooped down, grabbed Matt, and flew off.

Chloe sighed, covering her eyes with a hand. "One day...just one day of a normal brother," she said to herself.

Matt was not appreciating his free ride. "Put me down, you Scooby-Doo villain reject!" he yelled.

Ratbat, despite everything felt it nessesary to draw attention to the now quite high drop. Ratbat did several loop-de-loops, given Matt a wide view of his surroundings at a dizzying speed.

Matt made a gulping noise...and not from fear. "That's it...let GO!" he said, blasting Ratbat from below. The mechanical bat screeched and let go of Matt. "Yes," said Matt before remembering where he was. "You know, I've seen a cartoon just like this once," he said before falling.

Chloe winced as Matt managed to turn dragon with just enough time to do a belly slide onto a rooftop. "Ow...scale burn," he said, turning back.

"If Ratbat's around," said Chloe, "I'm betting his master should be near too."

Matt called down from the roof. "I certainly hope so. I call dibs on pulling his leg off."

"And I call dibs on pulling yours off, ghost pilot." Suddenly, a pair of freeze rays hit both Matt and Chloe, trapping them in ice. A second later, Blitzwing landed nearby.

Matt looked up. "Oh no, not you again," he said gloomily, "I dread to ask, but how did you escape?"

"Simple, I froze ze rubble on top of me and shattered it," said Blitzwing, "As if anything made on zis planet could hold me for very long."

"I bet it left a few dents though," taunted Matt.

"Not as many as I'll leave in you," said Blitzwing with his Hotheaded face.

Matt stuck is tongue out. "Your mother was a toaster," he said.

"Enough talk," said Blitzwing, "Time to crush some human vermin."

"Not so fast, blitz-brain!" called a voice. The three of them turned to see Chip holding a device in his hands.

"Chip...what is that?" said Chloe, cautiously.

Matt added, "As long as it doesn't hurt us, blast away."

"Oh, something, I put together after some reverse-engineering with Master Disaster's remote," said Chip, "This'll incapacitate this psycho quite nicely." He pressed a button and waves of energy came out of the device and hit Blitzwing.

Blitzwing immediately switched to his Random face and started singing as well as dancing to his words:

"I'm a little teapot, short and stout.

Here is my handle, here is my spout.

Ven I get all steamed up, here me shout:

'Tip me over and pour me out'."

Matt said, "Catchy tune."

Chloe however had a pained look. "Make him stop," she said, her eye twitching.

"Huh, not the effect I had wanted," said Chip before switching off the device.

Blitzwing said, "I vas enjoying it," still in his Random voice.

"Fortunately, I had a backup plan in case this didn't work properly," said Chip. He snapped his fingers and Blackarachnia and Scorponok crawled over the sides of nearby buildings in their arachnid modes.

Blitzwing looked at them and switched to his Hotheaded face again. "Hah...zose puny techno-organics defeat ME?" he said.

"Laugh it up while you can, Blitzwing," said Blackarachnia.

Blitzwing switched to his Icy face and said in shock, "Blackarachnia? You're still alive?"

"How thoughtful, you actually remembered me," said Blackarachnia dryly.

He switched back to Hothead face and yelled, "And vorking vith ze AUTOBOTS?"

"They're far better company than you any day," said Blackarachnia, "Now how about-"

"Uh, pardon me, Blackarachnia," said Scorponok, "But may I take care of Blitzwing on my own, Triple Changer to Triple Changer?"

Blackarachnia paused for a moment and said, "Sure, knock yourself out."

Matt added "And can someone get us out? Not everyone has ANTIFREEZE!" he said, yelling the last part.

"Hang on, I brought defroster," said Chip, holding up a small vial with red fluid in it. "Don't let too much get on your skin," he said, "It'll give you a nasty rash."

Matt made a whimpering noise. Scorponok however started out blasting at Blitzwing who turned to his tank mode and started shooting. Scorponok hissed before scuttling forward and striking out with his tail. The two were knocked back, nearly crushing Matt. "Ok, I'll risk your defroster. I'd take a rash over being a pancake any day of the week," said Matt.

"Good, now hold still," said Chip as he started pouring the defroster, which had a near instantaneous effect on the ice.

Matt also noted the other effect. "It's burning through my armor," said Matt in a slightly-panicky voice.

"Yeah, I'm still working on that part," said Chip, "I doubt avalanche victims would appreciate being half-naked when they're rescued."

Matt suddenly got a strange look. "I think it's also burning through me," he said in a strained voice.

"No it's not," said Chip, "That's just the rash starting. It's only a prototype after all."

"It's burning," said Matt, his eye twitching.

"Oh quit your whining, you're almost free," said Chip.

Chloe yelped as Chip turned to her. "I'm fine," she said hurriedly, turning dragon in a panic.

"Just as well," said Chip, "I used most of it on Matt anyways."

Matt's first action when he was free was to turn dragon, yelping. Chip noted that his formula seemed slightly corrosive to dragon...if the screams were any judge. "Yeah, definitely needs more work," said Chip.

This did have a positive effect when Matt's flailing knocked Blitzwing's aim off. "Watch it, you clumsy oaf!" snapped Blitzwing before Scorponok knocked him over.

Matt's continued flailing caused him to whack Blitzwing again. "Zis primitive martial art is hardly enough to take care of me! snapped Blitzwing before pointing his turret at Matt. Scorponok took advantage of the distraction to clamp his claws into the side of the turret, dragging it off target. "I've had enough of this!" snapped Blitzwing before transforming to fighter jet mode and flying upwards.

"You're not going that easily," said Scorponok before changing to cobra jet mode and flying after him.

Chloe watched as the two fought in mid-air, ignoring her brother's screaming until he accidentally headbutted a roof air conditioning unit.

Blackarachnia watched Matt keel over and turned to Chloe. "How about we head back to where the others are fighting? I think Scorponok's got this one," said Blackarachnia.

Chloe nodded, kicking Matt awake. "Yeah...all we can do is distract him for now," she said.

"It burns..." whined Matt.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," said Chip, "Contrinus can fix that as soon as we get back."

The trio arrived on Blackarachnia's back at the main street to see that it more or less looked like a demolition derby had come through.

"Boy, what a mess," said Chloe.

"Yeah, I do not envy whoever has to clean that up," said Matt.

A hail of blaster fire almost hit the duo, a jet flying overhead before changing to Slipstream's robot form "Back off, sister," snapped Slipstream, "That yellow lizard is mine."

Blackarachnia changed to robot mode and said, "If anyone's got a claim on her, it would be me. Now back before I recycle you."

Slipstream smirked and said, "I'm not afraid of you," before shoving Blackarachnia back.

Blackarachnia's response was to grab Slipstream in one hand and tear off an armor plate with the other. Matt looked at Chloe and said, "It's nice to be wanted...eh?"

Slipstream snarled and reached forward and tore off Blackarachnia's armor plate with the Decepticon insignia on it. Blackarachnia glared at her before saying, "No you didn't!"

"Yes I did," smirked Slipstream.

The two femme bots immediately started fighting. Up in the sky, Blitzwing and Scorponok were still locked in combat when they noticed the fight below. Instead of blasting at each other, Blackarachnia and Slipstream preferred to fight hand-to-hand, specifically by ripping each other's armor off in pieces. The other Bots and Cons who were fighting in the main street started to leave off their fighting when they spotted the two, particularly the Constructicons.

Bulkhead said, "Shouldn't we help Blackarachnia?"

Mixmaster said a bit hurriedly, "NO...I mean...it's a matter of, erm...honor...she wouldn't want help."

Just then, Slipstream threw Blackarachnia onto the street. She jumped down after her, smashing a fire hydrant as she landed. Blackarachnia got up and tackled her, screaming loudly. The femme continued to struggle as the water splashed on them.

Matt said slowly, "This is somehow wrong...though you gotta admit, it's useful."

"And why is it useful?" asked Chloe in a frosty tone.

"It allows me to do this," said Matt before shooting several Cons who were distracted by the Deceptifemmes' fighting.

Chloe shrugged before electrocuting another couple of cons. "I suppose," she admitted.

As Blackarachnia and Slipstream fought, their watcher's imaginations pictured it as going considerably slower and a lot more intimate. The Constructicons were hooting loudly before suddenly Blackarachina slammed Slipstream's head against a wall and knocked her out. The Constructicons began to groan before Blackarachnia glared at them. The other Cons were also wondering why at least one of their number was out for the count with plasma damage.

Blackarachnia turned her head up to the two Triple Changers and called, "You liked the show?" Scorponok couldn't get a cohereant word past his lips and Blitzwing, for probably the first time in recorded history, was also speechless.

Chloe glared at the Bots and Cons and snapped, "As you were!" The Bots and Cons looked at each other before an important fact returned: they were supposed to be killing each other.

The Constructicons were about to pummel the considerably-more battered Team Charr members when suddenly a sonic blast sent them tumbling backwards. Soundwave stepped forward with Laserbeak in his hands and Rumble and Frenzy plugged into his speakers and toned, "Soundwave, superior. Constructicons, inferior."

"Hey! Who are you callin' inferior!" snapped Mixmaster.

"Yeah, at least people like us," said Hightower, "You're just an uncharismatic bore!"

Suddenly, Rumble and Frenzy detached from Soundwave's speakers and changed to robot mode. "Hey, no one calls Soundwave uncharazamatic!" yelled Rumble.

"Yeah, let's kick tailgate!" yelled Frenzy. The Constructicons were surprised to say the least as Rumble and Frenzy charged at them. It wasn't every day you were attacked by a detachable part of someone.

The speaker twins were getting closer when there was a cry of "MEEGA NALA QUEESTA!" The two of them of them turned in time to see Draco and Contrinus fly by, Draco dropping Stitch who cannonballed right into the twins.

"What the hell?" said Frenzy just before Stitch literally bowled him over.

Contrinus landed besides Matt and Chloe. "Sorry we took so long getting here," she said, "There are still a lot of civilians to evacuate."

"Glad you turned up. Nice to see Stitch having so much fun. He rarely gets a chance to let loose," said Matt, cheerfully.

The three of them watched Stitch pound on Rumble. "Yes, he does get excited easily," said Contrinus before looking at Matt, "That's a nasty-looking rash you have there. Did Oil Slick use one of his chemical weapons on you?"

"No...friendly fire from Chip's defroster. He needs to learn to use organic-friendly ingredients," said Matt.

"Well excuse me," said Chip, "Maybe next time I'll just let you stay in the ice."

"Not everyone has polishable skin, Chip," said Matt.

"I said I was sorry and that I'm still working on that," said Chip.

"It's acidic to dragons, you tin can!" yelled Matt.

Chloe just smacked her forehead and said, "Contrinus, just heal him up so we can focus on the giant robot attack."

Contrinus nodded and quickly removed the rash. "Remind me to never ask Chip to test stuff in the field ever again," Matt said.

Just then, a sonic blast made them all cover their ears in pain. "All enemies shall kneel before Soundwave," said Soundwave before playing a shattering note on Laserbeak.

Matt yelled, "I wish somebody would shut that overgrown disco machine up!"

"Wait, that's it!" yelled Chip, "Soundwave was originally designed to be an interactive musical robot, right?"

"JUST DO IT!" yelled Matt

Chip fiddled with his device for a few seconds, muttering, "Ok, increase the frequency strength, and there we go..." He pushed the button and more concentrated energy waves came from the device and hit Soundwave.

Soundwave stopped playing and said, "Error: primary control program being overridden...must...resist...basic...program...activation..." Suddenly, an antenna extended from his head and started flashing rainbow-colored strobe lights while Soundwave started playing party music and dancing to it.

The others got back up unsteadily. "Ow...that was worse than Matt's singing," said Draco.

"Yeah, but he's playing a much catchier tune now," said Chip.

"Yeah...how long will he stay like that?" said Matt, pulling a permanent marker pen from his combat vest.

"My calculation is that'll be stuck in dance mode for 25 minutes tops," said Chip, "But I think we've got bigger problems to worry about."

Matt, was drawing a smiley face onto Soundwave's leg and said, "Oh? What kind of problem?"

"Those things for example," said Chip, pointing at a horde of Sharkticons coming towards them.

Matt said weakly, "Yup...that'd do."

Just then, Mantichrome flew over in Starscream's body. "Keep fighting all you want," said Mantichrome, "But your forces will wear themselves out inevitably."

"Oh, for heaven's sake...does Ghoulwyrm know you're out?" taunted Matt.

"I'm not that bag of bones'-" started Mantichrome before wincing as his curse reminded him to mind his manners, "I mean, Ghoulwyrm does not control all of my actions. Besides, getting rid of you would be a favor to us both."

"Not really...I hear Ghoulwyrm wants to do me in personally...wouldn't it be an insult for a useless lackey to succeed where he failed?" taunted Matt, having noticed the wince.

"Ok, I might save you and your sister for him, but the rest of you are mine," said Mantichrome, "And I've still got more cards to play. Monstercons, attack!"

The four Monstercons burst out of a nearby building in robot mode. "It's payback time," said Whipsting.

"Oh, goody. The idiot quartet," said Chloe.

"Time for our big harmonizing," said Deathgrip, "Monstercons, unite!"

Their heads detached from their bodies as their bodies altered and attached to each other. When the heads combined into one, it sat itself back onto the combined bodies. "We are Monstructor!"

"Oh look...it's that guy again," said Matt, no sounding very impressed.

"We won't fail this time!" shouted Monstructor before several panels on his body opened to reveal missile launchers.

Matt and Chloe looked at each other and fired their attacks into the launchers, detonating their ammo. After a minute Contrinus said from the smoke, "Thanks...I never liked my eyebrows that much."

"Meh, Monstructor's down, nothing to worry about," said Matt before the sound of mechanical joints caught their ears. They looked to see a small army of Locust, Wadjet, Crawdad, and Xiphosura drones heading their way. Four of which were being altered by an energy from within the smoke before being pulled in there.

Monstructor waved the smoke aside though it was worth noting that his optics were crossed. "Ow," he said aimlessly.

"Ok, shouldn't he be scrap metal now?" asked Chloe.

"As long as there's a drone to replace a missing part, he can keep fighting," said Draco.

"Just blast him and his pet drones!" yelled Matt, throwing a plasma ball.

Just then, what looked like a combined version of the jet twins' jet modes appeared and sent a fiery tornado down towards Monstructor, pushing him back. "We will deal with one, organic friends," said Jetfire and Jetstorm's voices before the jet separated and transformed into the jet twins.

Matt turned to glare at Mantichrome. "And we'll deal with him," he said.

"You cannot stop us," said Monstructor before blasting at the twins, who dodged the attack.

"On the contrary, misshapen robot monster," said Jetfire.

"It is you who cannot stop us," said Jetstorm.

Suddenly, the two of them started altering, their heads withdrawing into their torsos, one leg extending while the one became an arm, their original arms becoming wings. Then the two of them combined to form a half orange and half blue bigger robot.

Monstructor took a step back and said, "Hey...that's cheating,", firing his cannon at him.

Safeguard was knocked back slightly by the attack before saying, "You are combiner mech, we are combiner mech, makes us even." Then he blasted at Monstructor with fire and wind.

Monstructor staggered back into an evacuated skyscraper, knocking part of it down. "You're just another bug for me to crush," he said.

"And we're still prettier than you," said Safeguard. Monstructor roared and aimed a swipe at Safeguard.

As the two combiners fought, Dirt Boss observed them. He had seen how their components transformed to combine and things started to click together in his mind. As he watched, a more solid idea started to form. Then he shouted, "Constructicons, assemble!"

The five other Constructicons paused in the middle of their fights before giving their opponents a stunning blow and heading back to Dirt Boss. "What it is, boss?" asked Long Haul.

"Kind of a bad time for calling a meeting," said Scrapper.

"I know that," said Dirt Boss, "But I've thought of a way for us to really turn the tides, but you have to do everything I say."

The Constructicons exchanged glances before Rollout asked, "What do we need to do?"

"We need to be working in sync, so I need to make sure you know what you're doing." He fired five cerebro shells into their foreheads.

"Hey! What gives?" snapped Hightower.

"We need ta being thinking the same thing for now," said Dirt Boss, "Just so you know what to do. Constructicons, transform: Stage 1!"

The Constructicons all suddenly shifted to vehicle mode. Matt looked down from where he was chasing Mantichrome on dragon form, "Hey...What the smeg are you doing?"

Then Dirt Boss shouted, "Now, transform: Stage 2!"

Rollout lifted himself onto his back wheels before they slide further up his body, while the base where his back wheels were extended and a pair of large pistons stuck out of the sides. Long Haul and Mixmaster started unfolding, with Long Haul standing on his scoop and swinging his bed back while Mixmaster stood on his blade and fully extended his mixing drum. Long Haul attached to the right side of Rollout's bottom while Mixmaster attached to the left side. Then Hightower lifted himself up with his cherrypicker arm and placed himself on top of Rollout's main wheel. His bed widened and clamped down while a post rose up in the middle. Scrapper lifted himself up by his shoveling arm and attached himself to the right side of Rollout's drum while Hightower's arm took position on the right. Then the two arms picked up Dirt Boss and placed him on the post in the middle. Dirt Boss unfolded, seemingly going into robot mode but then his front side split and folded aside, revealing a bigger face while his insides extended out to clamp onto the post. Then the Constructicons stood up, and up, and up, casting a shadow over everyone. When they were fully standing, they had now formed a hundred foot-tall robot. "Prepare to meet your doom," said the robot with a deep voice, "Nothing can withstand the might of...DEVASTATOR!"

Matt gulped. "Please be on our side," he said to himself.

Mantichrome stated in shock for a minute before yelling, "Don't just stand there, stop him!"

Spittor, Strika and Oil Slick turned to see Devastator and hesitated for a second before firing. They might as well have used Nerf guns for all the effect it had. Devastator however was able to do a little more as he effortlessly swatted them aside.

Blackout roared loudly before trying to smash into Devastator. However, as tall as Blackout was, Devastator was taller. He picked up Blackout, though with significant difficulty, and tossed him over several city blocks.

Mantichrome stared in horror, quite forgetting about Matt till he tackled into him from behind sending them down into the street.

Then the Seekers and Cyclonus swooped down and started pelting Devastator with energy blasts. Devastator roared in annoyance and anger and swatted at the jets.

Matt however had Mantichrome pinned. "I'm gonna tear you apart, you little rat," he snarled.

"Get off of my Decepticon body!" snapped Mantichrome before activating the defense systems and shocking Matt.

Matt snarled but refused to let go, digging his claws in deeper. "Not...this time," he said, straining from the constant charge.

Just then, Mantichrome spotted something and yelled, "Behind you!"

Matt growled and said "I'm not that du..." he was cut off as one of the seekers slammed into his side. Matt shook his head and looked around in confusion and said, "Huh? What the?" Then he spotted the Seeker and saw it was Ramjet. "You!" he shouted.

Ramjet smirked and said, "Yes, it was my idea to barrel into you and save Mantichrome. I bet you never saw it coming."

Matt glared and was about to attack Ramjet when Chloe yelled "He's the liar...remember?"

Matt looked at Ramjet who said, "I'm not afraid of you." Matt simply blasted him.

"Wait, if he was lying just then, then how come he-" started Chloe when a loud bellowing caught their ears. They looked up to see Devastator still swinging at jets, only now he was smashing nearby buildings as he tried to hit them.

"That explains it," said Matt, grabbing Mantichrome as he tried to sneak off. "I'm not done with you yet," said Matt, darkly.

Then Matt and Chloe flew up towards Devastator's head. "Hey, big guy, settle down!" shouted Matt, "We're supposed to be protecting this city, remember?" The giant roared before swatting Matt and Chloe out of the sky.

Matt landed with a bang on top of Mantichrome again, shortly before Chloe bounced off him. "Ok...ow?" said Matt annoyed.

"What's up with that guy?" asked Chloe.

"I don't know, but I know who to interrogate to find out," said Matt.

Chip backed up as Matt and Chloe advanced. "Ok...explain exhibit: Godzilla over there," said Matt, pointing at Devastator.

"Hey, I'm just as surprised as any of you that they could combine," said Chip, "I guess that explains those 'vestigial' joints I found in them."

Chloe turned dragon and picked Chip up. "Can you fix it?" she said in a warning tone that indicated that it would be healthy that he did know.

"Well, I'm assuming that due to their inexperience, they're having trouble maintaining control, hence this rampage," said Chip, "But if we can make them separate, it should quite effectively stop Devastator."

Matt glared at Chip. "Ok...HOW?" he said.

Chip scratched his head and said, "I'm still working on that. But on the bright side, he's pummeling the bad guys into submission."

"Yeah...and our side too," commented Matt before glaring.

"I'm aware of that problem," said Chip, "I should be able to come up with something in about 10 minutes if you just keep him distracted long enough."

"You've got 5!" snapped Chloe.

A smashed scorpion tank landed behind them and Matt said, "You have 1," before taking off.

Chloe dropped Chip on his head, putting a bit of force into so Chip ended up partially buried upside-down. "You know, this is one of several reasons why I want to eventually leave the mercenary biz," said Chip.

Matt and Chloe swooped down, strafing Devastator's back before peeling away.

Devastator roared before chasing after them. Then Waspinator buzzed up behind him and said, "Wazpinator stop big bot." He flew right at him and dug his stinger into Devastator's back. However, the stinger got stuck and Waspinator couldn't get it back. To add insult to injury, Devastator didn't even notice.

"Chip will pay for this!" yelled Matt, dodging a grab from Devestator.

Just then, Sari flew by them with her jetpack. "Hang on, I've got this," she said. She flew up to Devastator's left shoulder and put her hand on it. After a few seconds, she said, "Ok, to stop Devastator, we just have to-" Suddenly, the arms on the cherrypicker grabbed Sari before shoving her into the bucket, which now served as Devastator's left hand.

"Gee, that worked well," said Matt sarcastically.

Devastator roared and started stomping towards Sumdac Tower. "This is stupid...first Decepticons, now Robo Kong?" said Chloe, annoyed.

"Hey, he's an aggregation of construction vehicles, how could he possibly any worse?" asked Matt. When Devastator reached the base of Sumdac Tower, He swung his right arm up, causing the scoop that formed his right hand to extend on a line and hook onto a spot higher up. Then Devastator started to climb the side of the tower.

Chloe tail slapped Matt, "You HAD to say it."

Matt sighed and landed on a roof to activate his comm. "All flyers get to Sumdac Tower as soon as you can. We've got a hostage situation so set to stun...for now."

A pilot on the other end said, "What?" Matt explained what had happened then winced as the pilots listening in started laughing.

"Alright, any flying Autobots I can talk to?" asked Matt.

"Just me, Scorponok, Prowl, the jet twins, and Waspinator," said Dune Runner's voice, "Speaking of which, where is that green hornet?"

"Last I saw of him, he was stuck to Devastator's back." said Matt.

"He still is," said Chloe, pointing to Devastator's back, where Waspinator was struggling to get free.

"You think that 'bees die after stinging' applies to Waspinator?" asked Matt.

"He's a wasp, not a bee," said Chloe, "But I hope not."

Devastator finally noticed Waspinator, reaching round and pulling the techno-organic loose before throwing him towards the ground. "Ooooh...that'll leave a mark," winced Matt.

Dune Runner was gliding towards Sumdac Tower on his hoverboard. "Hang on guys, I'm on my way," he said. A hail of energy bolts suddenly shot out, blowing craters in the asphalt around him.

Dune Runner barely dodged the blasts and looked around. He spotted Sideways sitting on a nearby building. "Hey, surfer boy," said Sideways, "Care to throw down?"

Dune Runner glared at Sideways before looking back at the tower. "I ain't got time for dis, mon," he said, annoyed.

"Oh, I can make time for anyone," said Sideways, pointing his blasters at Dune Runner, "You're not getting by me."

Dune Runner readied his own blasters. "You're not gonna stop me for long." he said.

Sideways seemed to grin under his mouthplate and said, "You forget, Duney, I have healing powers and you don't. This fight's going to be a lot shorter."

Dune Runner and Sideways immediately opened fire on each other as well as dodging the incoming shots. Sideways eventually got hit in one shoulder but managed to hit Dune Runner in the chest. "Stupid surf bot," said Sideways as his nanites healed the damage, "You can't- What?" Sideways and Dune Runner watched in amazement as Dune Runner's wound glowed blue before healing up.

Sideways was gobsmacked. "How...how did you DO that?" he said in amazement.

Dune Runner however looked even more shocked. "I dunno, mon," he said before the two got over their shock and took aim again.

"So, what's it going to be, Dune?" asked Sideways, "We two immortals fighting each other till Judgment Day and trumpets sound?"

Dune paused to think for a minute before saying, "Or you could surrender."

Sideways slapped the side of his head. "Dammit...ever since I absorbed that cable uplink, I keep getting sky movies," he said.

"Least ya picked a good movie to quote," said Dune Runner before firing.

Sideways glared and blocked the blast before firing at Dune Runner. He suddenly twitched. Dune Runner took advantage and fired a shot that took off the top part of his head.

Sideways twitched as an annoying jingle played in his head, "If you don't want your summer to be lame and icky, pick up the phone and call me-"

Sideways snapped at this, actually reaching into one of his audio receptors and pulling a handful of cabling out. "Thank the Allspark," he moaned before Dune Runner punched him. Sideways glared and threw a punch back at Dune Runner.

Back at Sumdac Tower, Matt dodged a piece of the tower and yelled, "For smeg's sake...let's just blast him and be done with it."

Just then, a message came over his comm. "Matt, it's Chip. I've figured out how to stop Devastator. Just keep him from reaching the top of Sumdac Tower for a few more minutes."

"Ok...should we clean him up while we're at it, Mr. 'I'm all safe at ground level'?" retorted Matt.

"Just trust me," snapped Chip.

Matt blew a raspberry down the comm. and flew over to Chloe. "Well...we gotta stop him getting to the roof," he said.

Chloe rolled her eyes and said, "Great, how are we supposed to do that? Have a parade of red sports cars roll by to keep him distracted?"

"I still vote for blasting him," said Matt.

Just then, Scorponok flew up to them, with Jetfire and Jetstorm behind him. "Not to worry, Matt," said Scorponok, "We know how to keep a Decepticon busy. Not that Devastator's strictly a Decepticon. How long do you need?"

"Chip said 3 minutes," said Matt.

"Only 3 minutes?" asked Jetfire.

"That is too easy," said Jetstorm.

"Alright boys, Divebomb Maneuver #20," said Scorponok before the three jets flew towards the climbing giant. Devastator turned as he heard the jets incoming, taking a swipe at them as they flew past.

"Hmm... On second thought, Jetfire, Jetstorm, Superion Strife," called Scorponok. The twins combined into one jet and swept by Devastator, leaving a baking trail of flame as they went.

"Hey...we have a hostage on that bot! Cooking the hostage looks bad on the report!" yelled Chloe.

"Oops, sorry," said Safeguard before doubling back and creating cooling wind that caused a bit of frost to appear on Devastator.

"Same thing applies to flash freezing them," said Matt, sending a plasma blast into Devastator's back.

Devastator roared again and swiped at them. But by doing so, he lost his grip and would have tumbled to the ground if his scoop hand once again found a hold on the tower.

Sari yelped and held on, yelling at Matt, "Hey, watch it! I'm still in here!"

Matt faceplamed and said, "Bloody combiners..."

"We resent that!" called Safeguard as he zoomed by.

"Less resenting, more denting," retorted Matt.

Chloe yelled into her comm. "CHIP...BE READY OR ELSE!"

"Actually, we almost are," said Chip, "How far up is Devastator?"

"Almost at the top. We can't distract him for much longer," said Chloe.

"That's ok. Just keep his attention for one minute longer and let him come up," said Chip.

Chloe growled from frustration and sent a lightning bolt at Devastator before saying, "Ok...let him through. Chip's ready."

"You sure?" asked Matt.

"I don't really care at this point," said Chloe, "If Chip's plan fails, blast him off...after we get Sari out of course." Matt nodded before waving at the twins and Scorponok to break off.

After that, Matt and Chloe flew up and landed on the tower's roof. Chip was standing there, along with a few mercs, a dropship, and something covered by a tarp.

Matt turned back and said, "Ok...what have you got planned?"

"Yes, what brilliant device have you build to control Devastator?" asked Chloe sarcastically.

Chip grinned and said, "Didn't need to build one. Don't need a device at all."

Matt glared. "I'm a bit annoyed now, so I'm going to turn dragon and stomp on you, ok?" he said darkly.

Chip gave Matt an annoyed look and said, "Have you always had a short fuse or is that a natural part of dragons?"

Chloe glared. "You have 30 seconds to explain what your plan is," she said

"Ok boys, remove the tarp," said Chip. The mercs removed the tarp, revealing several barrels of oil.

Matt and Chloe stared before yelling, "YOU HAD US WAIT FOR THAT?"

"I needed to get up to the top of the tower before Devastator got here. If he arrived first, he would have just knocked the dropship out of the air," said Chip.

Matt looked as Devastator peered over the edge. "Uh oh...trouble," said Chloe.

"Excellent, you might want to stand back," said Chip.

Devastator glared at them before seeing the oil and reached for the barrels. Devastator grabbed one barrel with his left hand and raised it up to his mouth. But then, the arm pulled away, apparently not to Devastator's will as gave a cry of annoyance. Then his right arm reached over and tried to take the oil, but the left arm wouldn't let it. The group watched with fascination as Devastator started fighting himself for the oil, though Matt twitched when the right arm slammed down on the dropship, flattening it.

"So, any explanations?" asked Chloe.

"Simple," said Chip, "Devastator has only one mouth and six individual fuel tanks. If he drinks oil, only Dirt Boss would get it and the other five want their share. I'd say in a few more seconds, they'd become disharmonized enough to separate."

Matt said weakly, "My dropship...my lovely dropship...all squished." He started twitching a bit before saying faintly, "How long before I can tear them apart?"

"3...2...1..." Suddenly, Devastator started to fall down and separate. As the pieces fell, they changed back to their individual robot modes. Not long after that, the six Constructicons ran over and started chugging oil.

Matt glared and reared up behind them. Mixmaster, not really spotting the danger signs, said, "Oh, hey mac, how you doin'?"

"You...smashed...my...SHIP!" shouted Matt, the last part coming out in a roar.

"What, oh, uh, that'd be Scrapper," said Mix, pointing.

Scrapper gulped as Matt turned to glare at them, now in full dragon form and said, "Erm...I think Hightower was that arm."

"What? No," said Hightower, "It was Rollout, he shifted our balance."

"I only shifted our balance because Long Haul moved," said Rollout.

"But Mixmaster kicked me," said Long Haul, "That wasn't my fault."

"Hey, I was only actin' on Dirt Boss' orders," said Mixmaster.

"Yeah, Dirt Boss, he made do it," said Scrapper.

"Yeah, me too," said Rollout.

"His fault," said Hightower.

"Blame him," said Long Haul.

Dirt Boss had just got his own marbles in order and turned to see Matt. "Erm...hi?" he said before Matt hit him so hard he went down through the roof...and a couple of floors.

"Say ain't this like how we first met Dirt Boss?" asked Mixmaster.

"I ain't fishin' him out," said Scrapper.

Matt however said, "If you're not going anywhere...FIX MY SHIP!", roaring the last part so hard the Constructicons fell over.

The five remaining Constructicons quickly ran over and started working. Surprisingly, in just two minutes, the ship was virtually brand new.

"It's all in the motivation," said Matt, smugly.

"Wait a minute," said Chloe, "Where's Sari."

A tapping sound came from within Hightower's bucket. He reached into it and pulled out Sari. "Er, I threw up on your floormats," said Sari, "Sorry."

"Ok, I admit the combiner function is not something easily wielded," said Chip, "But they really flattened our enemies. Not to mention the potential in demolitions..."

Matt glared and stomped down on the ground. "FOR THE LAST TIME...NO HIRING THE CONSTRUCTI...oh bugger," he said, adding the last part when he noticed his front paw was stuck

Chip looked annoyed before walking off. "Stubborn drakes..." he muttered.

Matt turned human to get free. "Ok...now what?" he said.

Scorponok landed on the roof and said, "For starters, I suggest that we arrest those Decepticons."

Matt looked over the edge of the tower to see the Decepticons that had been unlucky or stupid enough to get in the way of Devastator. Optimus and his team were already slapping stasis cuffs on a few. Matt noted that but then said, "Hey...where's Mantichrome?"

"It's a funny thing, really," said a voice. They turned to see Dune Runner, a little battered, but functioning. "It happened during my fight with Sideways..."

Dune Runner and Sideways were bounding it out in the streets of Detroit, both forsaking weapons for servo-to-servo combat.

Sideways said, "You know...we're too evenly matched. We could do this all week and not get anywhere…" before he got a shifty look and tripped Dune Runner. "Of course, that's only if I fight fair," he said. Sideways pointed his blaster between Dune Runner's optics and said, "Game over."

Dune Runner suddenly said, "Erm...you hear dat?"

A female voice was saying, "Sidevays...SIDEVAYS...REPORT!"

Sideways pulled his blaster away and muttered, "Slag..." before running off. Dune Runner got up and quickly hid in a nearby alleyway.

Dune Runner peered out to see Strika stomp by. "Zis mission is a complete disaster. Zat stupid excuse for a Decepticon got half my team stasis-locked and now he iz hidink," she was muttering. She looked around and called out, "Oh Sidevays... Come out, come out, vherever you are...SO I CAN BLAST INTO TINY, LITTLE PIECES!" Dune Runner gulped and ducked back out of sight.

Suddenly, a loud voice came blaring out of her malfunctioning comlink, "General Strika, what on Earth are you doing on Earth?"

Strika was a bit shocked. "Sir? You gave us orders to attack. You sent General Mantichrome and Sidevays to lead ze attack," she said.

"I never heard of those two!" snapped Megatron's voice, "Did I not say to not engage the Autobots until further orders?"

"Nein...you gave direct orders to attack. I have the message recorded," said Strika, now clearly confused before sending a recording.

After a few seconds, Megatron's voice shouted so loud it cause feedback squealing, "You blundering engine blockhead! Can't you tell a forgery when you see one?"

"But sir..." began Strika before Megatron yelled "NO EXCUSES! Pull your forces out NOW!"

"But ze Autobots..." started Strika.

Megatron interrupted, "The Earth Autobots are mine alone to deal with. You and your team are forbidden to be in this system until further orders. Do you think you can follow that command?"

Strika said, "Ya...I vill give the order to retreat...and the imposters?"

"Destroy them on sight," said Megatron, "Megatron, out." Then he signed off.

Strika turned her comm. on. "All Decepticons, Mantichrome is an impostor...as is Sidevays...destroy zem. We are also instructed to leave zis organic mudball at once."

"Fine with me," said Oil Slick's voice, "This dump is a total waste of time."

Dune Runner smiled to himself and said, "This is interesting."

Suddenly, he heard something above him and he looked up to see Strapwing take off from a nearby building and fly away. Strapwing in question had overheard the comm. "I knew this would happen," he was saying to himself before looking around for Mantichrome.

Mantichrome was looking over the dented-up body of Starscream he had been piloting. "It's going to take days to repair," muttered Mantichrome before pulling what looked like a scanner from his storage compartment. The device flashed and Starscream's body turned into orange chickenwire before being sucked into the device.

Strapwing landed and began gibbering at high speed about what he'd heard. Mantichrome just looked in confusion before finally yelling. "NORMAL SPEED!"

"Cat's out of the bag, man, Team Charr are onto us!" cried Strapwing.

"Oh, for heaven's sake. You sure your audio sensors aren't on the bli...?" he began before a blast almost knocked his head off. "Ok...there might be some evidence to support your claim," he said.

Sideways drove around the corner and changed back to robot mode. "Guys, I think we're..." Then he noticed Mantichrome's smoking head. "Oh, you already know then," said Sideways.

The remaining members of team Charr that hadn't been stomped by Devastator came into view. "There he is...blast him and his friends!" yelled Oil Slick.

Mantichrome yelped as nearly avoided getting reduced to scrap. "I think it's a good time to retreat, full retreat, back to Nullspace," he said.

Strapwing quickly opened a portal. "Way ahead of you," he said panicking as another blast nearly blew him in half.

Mantichrome nodded before yelling, "Distracticons, retreat!"

Strapwing said, "Hey...I thought we were going to go with 'Legion of Doom'?"

Mantichrome turned to Strapwing and said, "One, I'm pretty sure that name's taken. Two, this is really not a good time for this."

Strapwing glared, muttering, "It's never time...slagging control freak," before jumping through the portal.

Soundwave, his minions, and the Monstercons ran up to them. "We're not finished with this universe, are we?" asked Sideways.

"Not by a long shot," said Mantichrome, "But I think it would be best to retreat until a more opportune moment appears."

The Monstercons looked confused...till a blast nearly blew them apart.

"Enough dawdling, back to Nullspace!" snapped Mantichrome. The Distracticons wasted no times, legging it through the portal before closing it behind them.

Team Charr kept firing at the portal until it close. Cyclonus turned to Strika and said, "Now what?"

"Ve leave zis planet," said Strika, "I don't care if Megatron told us to or not, I never vant to see zis organic dumpheap again."

Oil slick nodded. "Yeah...I just hope that 'Devastator' guy doesn't follow. It'll take months to get the dents out now Scalpel's gone," he said.

"And anozer thing, ve never speak of zat deserter again, he's dead, end of story," snapped Strika.

The others said, "Agreed." Team Charr transformed and rolled/flew off, only stopping to pick up the members who were too battered to move.

Dune Runner watched as the group limped away before turning on his comm. "Hey guys. De Decepticons are all leavin'."

"So, Mantichrome and his goons have cut their losses and left this universe, Team Charr's packing up and leaving the solar system, and every other Decepticon except Thrust, Dirge, and Slipstream has been captured?" asked Matt.

"Yeah, isn't that great?" asked Dune Runner.

Matt said, "Why do they always leave just as I'm getting into my stride?"

"Ignore him, he's always cranky when he doesn't get the last word," said Chloe.

Optimus came on the comm. "At least they're gone for now. We should be able to finish repairs to Detroit now," he said.

"Those Constructicons do speed up the work," said Dune Runner.

"Yeah...Something must have caused the Decepticons to leave. I hope the same thing happened to the NSC forces," said Chris.

Techo got off the communication monitor he was on and said, "Good news, when Mantichrome left, his viruses lost their power. The Cybertronians are calling off their attack, but I don't think it'll be safe to try negotiations for a while."

"So much for that," said Matt gloomily before saying, "It wasn't my fault this time."

"I know," said Chloe, "But we stopped a war and prevented Mantichrome from leveling Detroit. That's gotta be worth something."

"Yeah...probably the bill," said Matt darkly.

"We can come back in a few months when things have cooled off," said Techo.

"Yeah...I suppose…" said Matt gloomily.

Chip walked over and said, "Good news, guys. The Constructicons made a small profit with their repairs to the city. Of course, we need to lower the individual prices since it was partly their fault, but we still reaped a heavy reward."

Matt glared and said, "Chip, for the very last time, the Constructicons are-"

"Oh, I nearly forgotten," said Chip before handing Matt a think bundle of dollar bills, "Here's your cut."

Matt looked at it before seemingly freezing in place. You could almost hear the cogs turning before he said, "Keep up the good work," the wad of bills seemingly vanishing.

Matt walked off and Chris turned to Chip. "Your business skills are astounding," he said.

"A greased hand is often a welcoming hand," said Chip.

Sometime later, Matt and his crew were packing up the stuff they had left at the Autobots' base. Matt sighed. "I for one, am gonna be glad to be going back. This was the only contract outstanding...no robots...no magic...just relaxing. I hear Athens 2 is particularly nice," he said.

Just then, Scorponok walked up to Matt. "Well, Blurr, Jetfire, and Jetstorm have left for Cybertron, with Blitzwing and Starscream's clones with them."

Matt grinned. "About time...huh?" he said before seeing the new insignia on Scorponok's chest. The new insignia was red like the Autobot insignia, but it looked very different. It somewhat resembled a cat's or dog's skull, only with the ears still on and a long pair of fangs in the front. Matt looked at it. "So...what's up with the new badge of honor?"

"Well, since Cybertron's so anti-organic right now," said Scorponok, "I think I and the others may be away from Autobot society for a while. So we decided that as long as we're separated from the main Autobot body, we form our own subfaction. We're calling ourselves Maximals. What do you think?"

"Hmm...sure I've heard that somewhere else," said Matt, thoughtfully before shrugging, "Sounds fine to me."

"Well, I hope so," said Blackarachnia's voice, "I've had enough side-changing for one lifetime." Matt turned to see Blackarachnia and Waspinator, both with Maximal insignias replacing their Decepticons insignias.

"Good for you. I hear there's a nice system in Sector 3-6. The NSC decided it was no good for colonization by organics cause of high UV, should be perfect for you," said Matt.

"Maybe," said Scorponok, "Technorganic beings are vulnerable to radiation too. However, I think I know of a former Cybertronian colony that may be more suitable. The question is; how are we going to get the Dinobots to go?"

"Use reverse psychology," said Matt simply.

"That could work," said Blackarachnia.

"Yeah...just tell em they'd be too weak to go," said Matt with a smirk.

"Wazpinator might miss Earth," said Waspinator, "But then again, human-fleshies tend to make big stench."

Matt glared as Waspinator and ignited a plasma ball before sniffing his hand, "Hmm...you may have a point."

"We are still trying to work with him," said Scorponok, patting Waspinator on the arm, "Fortunately, Lilo provided a 'theropy plan' to help, er, 'turn him from bad to good'. Am I saying it right?"

"I think so..." said Matt.

"Well, Matt, it has been an honor fighting with you," said Scorponok, "Even if you were a former ghost pilot."

"Yeah, same to you. One more thing to work out: where did Serina go?" said Matt.

Just then, a broken robot arm landed about an inch away from Matt. Serina landed nearby and said, "Anything I missed?"

Matt gibbered a bit before saying, "Nothing much." The arm had impaled itself in the concrete.

"So, did you get rid of Karnak?" asked Scorponok.

"Unfortunately, not all of him," said Serina, "That two-faced creep Sideways managed to snatch his main body through some kind of portal."

"Yeah...as slippery as Dante ever was," said Matt darkly.

"Well, considering how much he has to rebuild himself, I don't think we'll be seeing Karnak for a good long time," said Serina.

"Yeah...but how much you wanna bet that the Elite Guard'll want a word with Serina?" said Matt.

"Well, she could 'disappear' with us," offered Blackarachnia, "Not that I like her that much, I just like to have some more protection to this backwater planet we're going to."

Serina said, "Sounds fun...count me in."

Matt smiled and said, "Great, now that everything's sorted out, I think we'll be..." He paused when he heard a beeping coming his comp. He looked at it and saw a text message: 'Party at the Bladestorm, bring oil and hooks. Hi-Tower.'

Matt's smile vanished faster than a hyperspace engine. "Excuse me...I have to kill a member of my crew," he said darkly.

"Ask Hightower whether I should bring petroleum or ethanol oil," said Serina.

"Oh...I think the party will be cancelled. It's organizer will be injured in a freak plasma accident," said Matt, his eye twitching.

"Take it easy on them," said Serina, "They're just having fun."

"They're on MY SHIP! I TOLD CHIP THOSE WALKING DISASTER AREAS WERE TO KEEP OFF MY SHIP!" yelled Matt.

Serina sighed and said, "There he goes again. Overreacting as usual."

Matt grinned manically and wandered off saying, "Smashy smashy time."

Serina shook her head and said, "Don't worry, Chloe usually stops him before he does something drastic."

"You think they'll ever come visit us?" asked Scorponok.

"Primus forbid," said Blackarachnia.

"Wazpinator agrees," said Waspinator.

"Well, we better get to the space bridge then," said Scorponok, pointedly ignoring the evil cackling coming from the direction Matt went.

* * *

And there at long last is the final chapter. I hardly expected it to take this long. But I certainly put one heck of a finale into it. With Team Chaar gone, nearly all the Seekers and Blitzwing in captivity, and Mantichrome's force leaving, Detroit may be left in peace now. That is until Megatron shows up with his Lugnut Supremes. And now for the homages. I have all the Seekers named now, with Slipstream's particular incident as a behind-the-scenes thing that's best left unmentioned. The Devastator-class ship is from a video game that I can't remember the title of right now. Of course, anyone with proper Transformers knowledge would recognize Soundwave and the Constructicons' confrontion from the 80's movie. And of course, Devastator's combination sequence is a harken back to the Constructicons/Devastor's original debut in 'Heavy Metal War'. And the Maximal part needs little explanation. Well, now we can move on to more exciting fics. The first one might be up tomorrow even. So keep a lookout for it and please review.


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